Equine therapy

The study also examine how much therapeutic horseback riding a child needs to see measurable results and how long those results last.

Treatment completion is the greatest challenge for the treatment of substance use disorders.

Anecdotal responses from parents and caregivers suggested that the children were more positive, focused and calm both inside and outside the program.

“Emotional transfer and connectedness along with mutual beneficial effects of touching and physical proximity, may represent the backbones sustaining the relationship.”

The potential of human-animal interactions to increase empathy in children and young people is noted in British study.

“Psychophysiological effects of Equine-assisted therapy on horses and in veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)” will explore the efficacy of equine-facilitated psychotherapy (EFP) on humans and horses.

Study team set out to investigate whether such therapy work created negative or positive emotions in horses.

“Though long alluded to, there is now an accumulation of evidence of the vital contribution that emotion makes to learning,”

Riding simulators can’t replace the real thing since they cannot induce the same emotional experience, researchers say.

Those using the mechanical horses made bigger gains in postural coordination than those using conventional therapy.