Equine-Assisted Therapy in South Zealand, Denmark

People with psychosocial challenges or negative experiences with previous therapists often adopt a defensive stance toward others. For them, it can be easier to interact with horses. The nonverbal communication involved is often less threatening or stigmatizing, and through equine-assisted therapy, clients can learn to transfer adaptive social skills to their daily interactions.

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The Knowledge Behind the Method

Equine-assisted therapy is an experiential method/approach where you can gain increased understanding of yourself and your relationship to others through your interaction with the horse and its characteristics. The horse possesses qualities that make it well-suited to help and regulate us humans. It is an intuitive, attentive, curious, and sensitive animal. A horse will never intentionally cross a person’s boundaries; it always tries to find the most comfortable place for itself in any given situation. In equine-assisted therapy, we work with the horse from the ground—that is, without riding it.

Because of the mutual trust, respect, and attachment, the relationship between horse and client can be compared to the therapeutic alliance between therapist and client. Moreover, interactions with horses involve a physical closeness not found in human therapeutic relationships due to ethical reasons (Yorke et al., 2008).

These unique qualities of interacting with horses form the basis for the psychotherapeutic use of horses. Using the horse as a helper in a therapeutic setting between a human and a horse provides a foundation for self-awareness and learning (S.F. Thorup, p. 18).

Research suggests that equine-assisted therapy is particularly beneficial for patients who have not responded to traditional therapy (Bates, 2002; Selby & Smith-Osborne, 2013). Horses can read humans because they have a highly developed limbic system. The limbic system is located in the part of the brain called the mammalian brain. This is where emotions are distinguished, which is why it is often referred to as “the feeling system.” Horses are highly social animals, and their limbic system closely resembles that of humans. The regulation of their nervous system heavily depends on other horses in the herd. They calm and reassure each other through body language.

Horses can therefore detect whether there is activity in our sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system by reading our body language. Horses also have excellent memory when it comes to relationships. Thus, they can recognize people even if they have met them only once before. When the client performs bodily exercises on the ground with the horse, the horse, due to its highly developed limbic system, will reflect the client’s state through its body language. The therapist can then read the client’s condition by observing the horse’s reactions to the client.

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