In previous blog posts I've described my own personal experience and convictions about the benefits of being around horses.
Today I'll summarize two recent studies - one focused on equine assisted therapy(EAT) and one focused on animal assisted therapy. In the first study, conducted by Marchand et al., (2022), researchers conducted a study involving 33 veterans who had been admitted to a substance abuse treatment program. EAT was included as part of the programming of the center. Preintervention and postintervention instruments were used to determine the effectiveness of the therapy. Findings indicated that EAT produced a reduction in negative symptoms and an increase in positive responses (Marchand et al., 2022).
The second study, conducted by Ang & MacDougall, (2022) explored the effectiveness of animal assisted therapy (AAT) which typically involves utilizing horses or dogs in therapy, but other animals can also be used. In this study, three therapists and four parents were interviewed to learn their perceptions about the effectiveness of AAT in working with children on the Autism spectrum (Ang & MacDougall, 2022). The study concluded that therapists and parents perceived that AAT provides benefits in three areas - physical, sensory and emotional. Because of the nature of the study, it is unknown whether the benefits are long-term.
References
Ang, C.-S., & MacDougall, F. A. (2022). An Evaluation of Animal-Assisted Therapy for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Therapist and Parent Perspectives. Psychological Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-022-00647-w
Marchand, W. R., Joubert, K., Smith, J., Nazarenko, E., Klinger, W., Sheppard, S., & Hoopes, K. H. (2022). A Pilot Observational Study of Implementing an Equine-A ssisted Services Program Within a VA Medical Center Residential Substance Use Disorder Treatment Program. Military Medicine, usac028. https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usac028
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