The study of emotions in horses involves understanding the behavioral, physiological, and psychological responses of horses to various stimuli. Emotions in horses can be inferred through observable behaviors, such as vocalizations, body language, and interactions with their environment and other animals. Physiological indicators, including heart rate, cortisol levels, and other stress-related biomarkers, are also used to assess emotional states. This research area explores how emotions affect horse welfare, training outcomes, and human-animal interactions. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that examine the identification, measurement, and implications of emotional states in horses.
Fortin M, Valenchon M, Lévy F, Calandreau L, Arnould C, Lansade L.Emotions are recognized as strong modulators of cognitive capacities. However, studies have mainly focused on the effect of negative emotions, with few investigating positive emotions. Recent studies suggest that traits of personality can modulate the effects of emotion on cognitive performance. This study aimed to assess whether emotional states differing according to their valence influenced the ability to achieve instrumental conditioning and learning flexibility and to determine the influence of personality. After being tested for their personality, 55 mares underwent acquisition and extin...
Johnson RA, Albright DL, Marzolf JR, Bibbo JL, Yaglom HD, Crowder SM, Carlisle GK, Willard A, Russell CL, Grindler K, Osterlind S, Wassman M, Harms N.Large numbers of post-deployment U.S. veterans are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI), leading to an urgent need for effective interventions to reduce symptoms and increase veterans' coping. PTSD includes anxiety, flashbacks, and emotional numbing. The symptoms increase health care costs for stress-related illnesses and can make veterans' civilian life difficult. We used a randomized wait-list controlled design with repeated measures of U.S. military veterans to address our specific aim to test the efficacy of a 6-week therapeutic horseback...
Tan VX, Simmonds JG.This research explored parents' perceptions of the psychosocial outcomes of their children's experience of receiving equine-assisted interventions (EAI). Participants were the parents of six children (aged 3-14) diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Five semi-structured interviews were conducted and the transcript data was analysed using Interpretative phenomenological analysis. Four super-ordinate themes emerged from the analysis: (1) child's improved self-concept and enhanced emotional well-being, (2) child's improved self-regulatory ability, (3) social benefits for the child, and (4) une...
De Santis M, Contalbrigo L, Borgi M, Cirulli F, Luzi F, Redaelli V, Stefani A, Toson M, Odore R, Vercelli C, Valle E, Farina L.Equine assisted interventions (EAIs) are recently facing an increasing popularity, and are characterized by a wide diversity of practices. However, information on the welfare of animals involved in this kind of activity is often lacking. Horses are highly susceptible to work stressors related to physical constraints and/or to the need to control emotions while interacting with humans. Considerations of the emotional state of horses involved in EAIs have multiple valences: for the safety of humans and animals involved, for the quality and efficacy of interventions, as well as for ethical reason...
Maigrot AL, Hillmann E, Anne C, Briefer EF.Vocal expression of emotions has been suggested to be conserved throughout evolution. However, since vocal indicators of emotions have never been compared between closely related species using similar methods, it remains unclear whether this is the case. Here, we investigated vocal indicators of emotional valence (negative versus positive) in Przewalski's horses, in order to find out if expression of valence is similar between species and notably among Equidae through a comparison with previous results obtained in domestic horse whinnies. We observed Przewalski's horses in naturally occurring ...
Malcolm R, Ecks S, Pickersgill M.Experiences of autism-spectrum disorder are now increasingly studied by social scientists. Human-animal relations have also become a major focus of social inquiry in recent years. Examining horse-assisted therapy for autistic spectrum disorders, this is the first paper that brings these fields together. Drawing on participant observation and interviews at a UK horse therapy Centre, this article examines how staff and the parents of riders account for the successes and limitations of equine therapy. To the respondents, horses 'open up' autistic children and make possible interactions that seeme...
Baragli P, Demuru E, Scopa C, Palagi E.Mirror Self-Recognition (MSR) unveils complex cognitive, social and emotional skills and it has been found only in humans and few other species, such as great apes, dolphins, elephants and magpies. In this pilot study, we tested if horses show the capacity of MSR. Four subjects living socially under naturalistic conditions were selected for the experiment. We adopted the classical mark test, which consists in placing a coloured mark on an out-of-view body part, visible only through mirror inspection. If the animal considers the image as its own, it will use its reflection to detect the mark an...
Frontiers in zoologyFebruary 11, 2017
Volume 14 8 doi: 10.1186/s12983-017-0193-1
Briefer EF, Mandel R, Maigrot AL, Briefer Freymond S, Bachmann I, Hillmann E.Non-human animals often produce different types of vocalisations in negative and positive contexts (i.e. different valence), similar to humans, in which crying is associated with negative emotions and laughter is associated with positive ones. However, some types of vocalisations (e.g. contact calls, human speech) can be produced in both negative and positive contexts, and changes in valence are only accompanied by slight structural differences. Although such acoustically graded signals associated with opposite valence have been highlighted in some species, it is not known if conspecifics disc...
Lansade L, Marchand AR, Coutureau E, Ballé C, Polli F, Calandreau L.The relationship between personality and learning abilities has become a growing field of interest. Studies have mainly focused on the relationship with performance, such as the speed of acquisition. In this study, we hypothesised that personality could in part also be related to a certain predisposition of an individual to switch more easily from a goal-directed process to a habit process during learning. To identify these processes, we conducted a contingency degradation protocol. This study investigated 1/ whether in general horses are able to adjust their response according to the continge...
Tsantefski M, Briggs L, Griffiths J, Tidyman A.Children exposed to problematic parental substance use (PPSU) often face a number of deleterious developmental outcomes, yet these children are less likely to become known to child protection and welfare services. Although there is a growing evidence base for equine-assisted therapy (EAT) as an effective treatment modality for atypically developing children and adolescents, scant research has explored the benefit of EAT for children exposed to PPSU. The current study is the first to explore the benefit of EAT for children exposed to PPSU in Victoria, Australia. Five 12-week EAT programmes were...
Hintze S, Roth E, Bachmann I, Würbel H.Judgment bias tasks for nonhuman animals are promising tools to assess emotional valence as a measure of animal welfare. In view of establishing a valid judgment bias task for horses, the present study aimed to evaluate 2 versions (go/no-go and active choice) of an auditory judgment bias task for horses in terms of acquisition learning and discrimination of ambiguous cues. Five mares and 5 stallions were randomly assigned to the 2 designs and trained for 10 trials per day to acquire different operant responses to a low-frequency tone and a high-frequency tone, respectively. Following acquisiti...
Wathan J, Proops L, Grounds K, McComb K.In humans, facial expressions are rich sources of social information and have an important role in regulating social interactions. However, the extent to which this is true in non-human animals, and particularly in non-primates, remains largely unknown. Therefore we tested whether domestic horses (Equus caballus) could discriminate between facial expressions of their conspecifics captured in different contexts, and whether viewing these expressions elicited functionally relevant reactions. Horses were more likely to approach photographic stimuli displaying facial expressions associated with po...
Carlsson C.Despite an increasing number of studies, there is still a lack of knowledge about the unique features that underlie the process in equine assisted social work (EASW). This study aimed to reveal, through qualitative methods, the dyads within the triad that become stronger during the process of EASW, as well as the effect of the participation of the horse on the relationship between the counselor and client. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with nine female self-harming clients aged 15-21 years and eight staff members. The interviews, together with video-recorded human-horse inte...
Hintze S, Smith S, Patt A, Bachmann I, Würbel H.Finding valid indicators of emotional states is one of the biggest challenges in animal welfare science. Here, we investigated in horses whether variation in the expression of eye wrinkles caused by contraction of the inner eyebrow raiser reflects emotional valence. By confronting horses with positive and negative conditions, we aimed to induce positive and negative emotional states, hypothesising that positive emotions would reduce whereas negative emotions would increase eye wrinkle expression. Sixteen horses were individually exposed in a balanced order to two positive (grooming, food antic...
Kowalik S, Janczarek I, Kędzierski W, Stachurska A, Wilk I.The objective of this study was to assess the effect of relaxing massage on the heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) in young racehorses during their first racing season. In the study, 72 Purebred Arabian racehorses were included. The study was implemented during the full race season. The horses from control and experimental groups were included in regular race training 6 days a week. The horses from the experimental group were additionally subject to the relaxing massage 3 days a week during the whole study. HR and HRV were assumed as indicators of the emotional state of the horse...
Koolhaas JM, Van Reenen CG.This paper will argue that understanding animal welfare and the individual vulnerability to stress-related disease requires a fundamental understanding of functional individual variation as it occurs in nature as well as the underlying neurobiology and neuroendocrinology. Ecological studies in feral populations of mice, fish, and birds start to recognize the functional significance of phenotypes that individually differ in their behavioral and neuroendocrine response to environmental challenge. Recent studies indicate that the individual variation within a species may buffer the species for st...
Kern-Godal A, Brenna IH, Kogstad N, Arnevik EA, Ravndal E.A good therapeutic relationship is a strong predictor of successful treatment in addiction and other psychological illness. Recent studies of horse-assisted therapy (HAT) have drawn attention to the importance of the client's relationship to the horse in psychotherapy. Few have reported on the patient's own perspective and none have reported specifically on the human-horse relationship in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and its implications for health and well-being. Objective: This article explores SUD patients' own experience of their relationship with the horse and their perceptions ...
Smith AV, Proops L, Grounds K, Wathan J, McComb K.Whether non-human animals can recognize human signals, including emotions, has both scientific and applied importance, and is particularly relevant for domesticated species. This study presents the first evidence of horses' abilities to spontaneously discriminate between positive (happy) and negative (angry) human facial expressions in photographs. Our results showed that the angry faces induced responses indicative of a functional understanding of the stimuli: horses displayed a left-gaze bias (a lateralization generally associated with stimuli perceived as negative) and a quicker increase in...
Payne E, DeAraugo J, Bennett P, McGreevy P.This article reviews evidence for the existence of attachment bonds directed toward humans in dog-human and horse-human dyads. It explores each species' alignment with the four features of a typical attachment bond: separation-related distress, safe haven, secure base and proximity seeking. While dog-human dyads show evidence of each of these, there is limited alignment for horse-human dyads. These differences are discussed in the light of the different selection paths of domestic dogs and horses as well as the different contexts in which the two species interact with humans. The role of emoti...
Wathan J, Burrows AM, Waller BM, McComb K.Although previous studies of horses have investigated their facial expressions in specific contexts, e.g. pain, until now there has been no methodology available that documents all the possible facial movements of the horse and provides a way to record all potential facial configurations. This is essential for an objective description of horse facial expressions across a range of contexts that reflect different emotional states. Facial Action Coding Systems (FACS) provide a systematic methodology of identifying and coding facial expressions on the basis of underlying facial musculature and mus...
Lemasson A, Remeuf K, Hausberger M.Animal calls are commonly considered indicators of a sudden change in their arousal state. However, reports evidencing associated internal physiological changes are rare. By homology with human "emotional" vocal productions (e.g., laughter and crying), we predicted that animal vocal productions may result in relaxing tenseness or excitement. In this study, 15 stallions equipped with a heart rate monitor were presented a mare at some distance so as to prevent contact, thereby increasing the males' arousal. Stallions' heart rates increased just before whinnying but returned to baseline rates whi...
Briefer EF, Maigrot AL, Mandel R, Freymond SB, Bachmann I, Hillmann E.Studying vocal correlates of emotions is important to provide a better understanding of the evolution of emotion expression through cross-species comparisons. Emotions are composed of two main dimensions: emotional arousal (calm versus excited) and valence (negative versus positive). These two dimensions could be encoded in different vocal parameters (segregation of information) or in the same parameters, inducing a trade-off between cues indicating emotional arousal and valence. We investigated these two hypotheses in horses. We placed horses in five situations eliciting several arousal level...
Lee PT, Dakin E, McLure M.Equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP) is an innovative emerging approach to mental health treatment. This narrative synthesis explores the current state of knowledge and areas for future research in EAP. Specifically reviewed are qualitative and quantitative empirical studies, including both articles published in peer-reviewed journals and research presented in theses and dissertations. We selected 24 studies for final inclusion in this study, dating between 2005 and 2013, and including the first EAP empirical research completed in 2005. Four of these studies are peer-reviewed journal articles, ...
Lateralization in horses, Equus caballus, has been reported at both motor and sensory levels. Here we investigated left- and right-nostril use in 12 jumper horses freely sniffing different emotive stimuli. Results revealed that during sniffing at adrenaline and oestrus mare urine stimuli, horses showed a clear right-nostril bias while just a tendency in the use of the right nostril was observed during sniffing of other odours (food, cotton swab and repellent). Sniffing at adrenaline and urine odours was also accompanied by increasing cardiac activity and behavioural reactivity strengthening th...
Pendry P, Carr AM, Smith AN, Roeter SM.There is growing evidence that promoting social competence in youth is an effective strategy to prevent mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders in adulthood. Research suggests that programs delivered in collaboration with schools are particularly effective when they target social and emotional skill building, utilize an interactive instructional style, provide opportunities for youth participation and self-direction, and include explicit attempts to enhance youth social competence. A relatively new but popular approach that incorporates these characteristics is human animal interaction, wh...
Mengoli M, Pageat P, Lafont-Lecuelle C, Monneret P, Giacalone A, Sighieri C, Cozzi A.Modern day horse-human relationships entail different types of sport and riding activities, which all require learning. In evaluating the interaction between learning and emotions, studying normal coping strategies or adaptive responses to the surroundings is critical. 34 horses were involved in a cognitive test, in the absence of physical effort, to analyze performance, as well as physiological and behavioral responses related to learning, memorization and recall, associated to the capacity to reverse a learned model. Synthetic Equine Appeasing Pheromone (EAP) was used in 17 horses in order t...
Lanning BA, Baier ME, Ivey-Hatz J, Krenek N, Tubbs JD.Quality of life assessments were used in this study to determine the behavioral changes of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who participated in equine assisted activities. Behavioral changes of children with ASD participating in 9 weeks of equines assisted activities (EAA) (N = 10) were compared to behavioral changes of children who participated in a non-equine intervention (N = 8). Parents noted significant improvements in their child's physical, emotional and social functioning following the first 6 weeks of EAA. The children participating in the non-equine program also...
Merkies K, Sudarenko Y, Hodder AJ.Communication within a species is essential for access to resources, alerting to dangers, group facilitation and social bonding; human facial expressions are considered to be an important factor in one’s ability to communicate with others. Evidence has shown that dogs and horses are able to distinguish positive and negative facial expressions by observing photographs of humans, however there is currently no research on how facial expressions from a live human are perceived by horses. This study investigated how ponies distinguish facial expressions presented by live actors. Trained actors (n...
Wiśniewska A, Janczarek I, Tkaczyk E, Wilk I, Janicka W, Próchniak T, Kaczmarek B, Pokora E, Łuszczyński J.This study aimed to perform a comparative analysis of the horses' heart rate parameters and locomotor activity in a herd or isolation, with or without the company of goats. Twenty horses were tested in a paddock, accompanied (or not) by three goats. The experiment comprised four tests (a control test of a herd of horses without goats, a horse isolation test without goats, a test of a herd of horses with goats and a test of an isolated horse with goats). The horse's locomotor behavior, and the HR, RR, rMSSD, LF, HF, and LF/HF were recorded. The data analysis included a 15-min rest, procedural a...
Tenenbaum G, Lloyd M, Pretty G, Hanin YL.A study was carried out to examine the ability of equestrians to accurately report precompetition emotions and thoughts across varying time delays (3,7, and 14 days) after competition. Forty male and female dressage riders were randomly divided into two equal groups: participants who watched their videotaped precompetition routine before responding to the items, and participants who visualized the precompetition routine without any external aid. Each rider completed several questionnaires which measured emotions, items related to horses, and an open-ended question on thoughts and emotions at t...
Choińska AM, Bajer W, Żurek A, Gieysztor E.Activities with horses cause many emotional reactions in their recipients, the measurement and analysis of which can provide information about positive or negative attitudes toward hippotherapy activities. The purpose of the study was to explore how horse contact affects the emotions of female and male students experiencing horseback riding during a three-day hippotherapy session. Unassigned: The study included 252 physiotherapy students from the Medical University of Wrocław who participated in hippotherapy classes during a three-day didactic and scientific course implemented in the years 20...
Moscovice LR, Sobczak B, Niittynen T, Koski SE, Gimsa U.Although best known for its established role in mediating parturition and lactation, the highly-conserved neuropeptide hormone oxytocin also mediates a range of social and stress-buffering processes across mammalian species. Measurements of peripheral oxytocin in plasma have long been considered the gold standard, but there is increasing interest in developing methods to detect oxytocin non-invasively in saliva. Here we present an analytical and biological validation of a novel method to measure salivary oxytocin (sOXT) in an under-studied research group: farm animals. Given their similarities...
Hall C, Kay R.Quality of life is dependent upon the extent to which behavioural needs are met, and the balance between pleasant and unpleasant lifetime experiences. In Part II of this systematic review, articles (n = 109) relating to horse-human interactions were reviewed to identify behavioural evidence of their positive or negative impact on the horse. The number of articles (n = 22) relating to the recognition of pain in horses, indicated the importance of identifying health issues, which are also likely to increase the aversiveness of interactions. These and articles relating to emotional reactivity tes...
Cleary M, West S, Thapa DK, Hungerford C, McLean L, Johnston-Devin C, Kornhaber R.Animals are increasingly being utilized to assist with therapies for people with various health conditions. Horses are often used as a mechanism of engagement and development for autistic children and adolescents. Horses offer a unique opportunity for interaction as the child or adolescent can physically ride and interact with the animal, thus creating a therapy that involves contact that is different to other animals. Benefits derived from equine-assisted therapies can be physical, social, behavioral, emotional, sensory, and cognitive. However, a current and specific research gap exists in un...
Amado-Fuentes M, Denche-Zamorano A, Barrios-Fernandez S, Gozalo M.Equine Assisted Interventions (EAIs) integrate the active participation of horses in therapeutic or educational interventions. A bibliometric analysis was carried out on this topic, using traditional bibliometric laws and recommendations. For this purpose, a search on the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database was carried out, obtaining 333 documents. Annual publications followed an exponentially increasing trend (R = 86%), pointing out that this topic is a growing interest among researchers, publishers, and journals. The USA was the most productive country worldwide and Jeong-yi Kwon a...
Matias AR, Santos GD, Almeida N.A significant number of institutionalized children have behavior problems. Socio-emotional skills are fundamental for their adaptation and success throughout life and are usually weakened in this population. Equine-assisted services (EAS) are a form of therapeutic mediation that facilitates and requires the practitioner's participation, contributing to the promotion of various psychomotor and socio-emotional dimensions. This study was developed during 17 sessions of EAS with a psychomotor intervention, which took place individually and weekly and lasted approximately 45 min, with three institu...
Semin GR, Gomes N, D'Aniello B, Sabiniewicz A.We illustrate the problematic nature of different assumptions guiding the examination of whether humans can detect the source of fear chemosignals (i.e., body odors) emitted by horses-a research question examined in an article recently published in . A central issue is that the formulation of the question itself contains the answer to it. In this paper, we parse the problematic assumptions on which the analysis and methodology rely, leading to conclusions that are difficult to support. These assumptions constitute examples of methodological problems that should be avoided in research with anim...
Lemasson A, Remeuf K, Hausberger M.Animal calls are commonly considered indicators of a sudden change in their arousal state. However, reports evidencing associated internal physiological changes are rare. By homology with human "emotional" vocal productions (e.g., laughter and crying), we predicted that animal vocal productions may result in relaxing tenseness or excitement. In this study, 15 stallions equipped with a heart rate monitor were presented a mare at some distance so as to prevent contact, thereby increasing the males' arousal. Stallions' heart rates increased just before whinnying but returned to baseline rates whi...
Wiśniewska A, Janczarek I, Ryżak M, Tkaczyk E, Kędzierski W.It is not clear, if modern Konik Polski horses have retained the ability to identify sounds in terms of danger. The aim of the study was to identify differences in their behaviour in response to the reproduction of volcanic eruption and sea storm sounds, assumed to be unfamiliar to these horses, as compared to their response to a thunderclap sound, considered by the horses as potentially dangerous. The study included 13 adult mares of the Konik Polski breed, kept under a free-range system. Their behavioural responses to the reproduction of the three natural sounds with an intensity of over 50...
Matlina ESh, Bobylev IF, Skorupski K, Pukhova GS.The content of adrenaline, noradrenaline, ACTH, cortisol and insulin in the blood and excretion of catecholamines with urine were studied in horses after physical and emotional exposures. The highest degree of the sympathoadrenal system (SAS) and hypophysioadrenal system (HAS) activation followed by the insulin content decrease was observed after training. The known emotional exposure (the noise of hyppodrome) astivated both parts of SAS and HAS. The unknown emotional experience (electronic music) produced a strong adrenal medullar reaction. Analysis of the correlations showed that the initial...
Træen B, Finstad KS, Røysamb E.The purpose of the study was to elucidate the relationship between personality traits, perfectionism, and mental health (self-efficacy, positive emotions) among competition riders. Data were collected by online questionnaires among 662 licensed competition riders in Norway. The results showed that riders who were high on conscientiousness and low on neuroticism had better mental health than other riders. Self-oriented perfectionism predicted mental health and mediated partly the associations between personality traits and mental health. Socially prescribed perfectionism had no association with...
Wiśniewska A, Janczarek I, Wilk I, Tkaczyk E, Mierzicka M, Stanley CR, Górecka-Bruzda A.Ridden horses have been reported to be fearful of cows. We tested whether cows could provoke behavioural and cardiac fear responses in horses, and whether these responses differ in magnitude to those shown to other potential dangers. Twenty horses were exposed to cow, a mobile object or no object. The time spent at different distances from the stimulus was measured. In a separate test, heart rate (HR), root mean square of successive differences between heartbeats (RMSSD) and the horses' perceived fear were assessed at various distances from the stimuli. The horses avoided the area nearest to a...
Barolin GS, Samborski R.Physiotherapy on the back of the moved horse has two important dimensions: 1) The somatotropic effect regards mainly spasticity, ataxia, the vertebral column, the basis of the pelvis and the skin. 2) A general psychotherapeutic and psychohygienic effect is created by joy, change and new impetus in rehabilitation and by the emotional contact with the "comrade animal". Or unit was the first to introduce hippotherapy with adults in Austria. There is specially good experience with the spastic atactic component in multiple sclerosis. However other diagnosis as well showed good profit, such as strok...
Rowland M, Hudson N, Connor M, Dwyer C, Coombs T.Travellers and Gypsies are recognised ethnic groups in the UK and Ireland. Horse ownership is an important cultural tradition, however, practices associated with poor welfare are often perceived to be linked to these horse owning communities. Despite this, empirical studies on the welfare status of Traveller and Gypsy owned horses are lacking. To determine the welfare status of Traveller and Gypsy owned horses, 104 horses were assessed using a bespoke horse welfare protocol. This protocol assessed animal, resource and management-based measures. In addition, Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QB...
Kovács G, van Dijke A, Leontjevas R, Enders-Slegers MJ.Attachment characteristics play a key role in mental health and in understanding mental disorders. The aim of this study was to gain insight into the role the attachment characteristics can play in treatment effects in adult patients with intrapsychic and interpersonal problems who underwent Equine-assisted Short-term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (ESTPP). In the first part of the study, we compared the effects of ESTPP to treatment-as-usual from a previous dataset regarding psychological dysfunction. For this, an explorative experimental non-randomized pre-treatment and 1-year post-treatment de...
Gérard C, Valenchon M, Poulin N, Petit O.In collective movements, some individuals are more effective and attractive leaders than others. Parameters such as social network, personality, and physiologic needs failed to explain why group members follow one leader more than another. In this study in the domestic horse, we propose to focus on the leader's attitude and its impact to the followers' recruitment during two conditions: spontaneous group departures or experimentally induced departures. We postulate that the expressiveness of the leader could enhance its attractiveness and thus produce a successful followership. We found that a...
den Boer JC, Klip H, Blonk A, Lenselink M, Kaijdoe SPT, Tielkes M, van Zandbeek A, Bres G, Herinx M, Staal WG, Rommelse N.For people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), daily life can be highly stressful with many unpredictable events that can evoke emotion dysregulation (ED): a strong difficulty with appropriately negative affect regulation. For some of the patients with ASD, treatment as usual does not prove to be effective for ED. They may be at risk of life-long impairment, development of other disorders and loss of motivation for most regular forms of therapy. A highly promising method that may prove effective for therapy-resistant individuals with ASD is Psychotherapy incorporating horses (PIH). PIH uses t...
Dwyer J, Roshier AL, Campbell M, Hill B, Freeman SL.Weaning represents one of the most stressful events in the life of a horse, and may have long-term impacts on behaviour. There are a range of approaches used to wean foals from mares, including abrupt and progressive separation methods. There is currently a lack of consensus on how stress and impact are measured. Objective: To conduct a scoping review to identify and chart measures of weaning-related stress on the mare and foal. Methods: Scoping review. Methods: The scoping review was conducted using the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews. Systematic searches were conducted in three scientif...
Fiedler JM, Ayre ML, Rosanowski S, Slater JD.Anthropomorphizing can misinform the making of inferences about animal mental experiences. This is a consideration when implementing the Five Domains Model for animal welfare assessment. An online survey run in 2021 captured horse sector participants' perspectives about anthropomorphism and wellbeing in relation to horses. Most respondents, 82.9% ( = 431/520), believed that anthropomorphism could influence horse welfare and wellbeing. These respondents were then asked how, in their opinion, anthropomorphism might relate to horse welfare. A thematic analysis identified two themes: (1) 'Anthropo...
Peters BC, Gabriels RL, Schmid AA, Pan Z, Merritt T, Hoffman A, Hepburn S.The current paper aimed to assess the feasibility of a modified intervention protocol named "Occupational Therapy using Zones of Regulation Concepts in an Equine Environment" (OT-ZOR Equine). Unassigned: A single arm A-B feasibility study was conducted, involving 14 autistic youth ages 6-13 years who first received 10-weeks of occupational therapy without horses (OT-ZOR Clinic) followed by 10-weeks of OT-ZOR Equine. Unassigned: All participants completed the study and attended 95% of OT-ZOR Equine sessions. Occupational therapists maintained 91% fidelity to the OT-ZOR Equine intervention proto...
Mota-Rojas D, Whittaker AL, Bienboire-Frosini C, Buenhombre J, Mora-Medina P, Domínguez-Oliva A, Martínez-Burnes J, Hernández-Avalos I....Recognizing that nonhuman animals are sentient beings has increased interest in studying their emotional state. Similar to humans, research has shown that some nonhuman mammals can modify facial expressions by contraction/relaxation of facial muscles according to their affective state. From a neurophysiological perspective, emotions are processed in several brain structures, mainly from the limbic system, such as the hypothalamus, hypophysis, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala. The converged pathways between the amygdala, the motor cortex, and its projections to the facial nerve cont...
Wienhold S, Bär L, Ringleb Z, Zirpel V, Gomolla A, Denk BF, Volkmer N, Gaertner RJ, Klink ESC, Pruessner JC.In any therapeutic setting, the outcome depends in part on the therapeutic alliance, characterized by mutual understanding, empathy and trust among the participants. This also manifests through physiological synchronization (PS) processes involving breathing, heart and brain. This study examined the dynamics of heart rate variability (HRV) synchronization patterns during horse-assisted therapy. We explored the correlations between the therapist's horse preference, levels of early life adversity (ELA), and PS relationships within and across dyads of participants, therapists, and therapy horses....
