Why equine therapy? eli5
Some days ago I was wondering why horses are used for therapy? How did it all started? Can the therapy be performed with any other animal? If yes, why are horses special?
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Turing is a PAT (pets as therapy) cat, he specialises with working with adults with additional needs or dementia. But that’s very short term. He’ll give cuddles and distractions during anxiety causing events, like doctor or dentist visits.
Whereas equine therapy is much longer, you have to do the grooming, tacking up, then riding, then de tacking, and putting away, maybe even mucking out. So it creates a deeper bond, teaches responsibility etc.
it’s literally horses for courses.
The cats, dogs and even llamas are used for different outcomes than equine therapy
Animal therapy is done with all types of animals. Basically it has to be a domestic animal that people can pet or hold. So no tigers or fish.
Since managing therapy animals is not a big money maker but done by people who want to to it, generally the animal chosen is the type of animal they like.
Horses, like dogs, are animals with personality and behavior characteristics that mesh/match really well with humans. Over thousands of years, they’ve been bred for that.
Not only do horses allow themselves to be trained/handled by humans, but the act of doing this is beneficial to the humans as it teaches them patience, empathy, physical skills and more.
Horses live a long time, so the skills they learn from, and teach to, humans provide a good return on time invested. Also, they’re interesting and cool enough to most people that even cynical or tuned-out patients look forward to interacting with horses.
They’re just a really amazing complement to humans.
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