What´s Equine-Assisted Therapy?

‘There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse’ (unknown). Whoever this quote may be related to, he or she knew about the strong relationships that can be created between humans and horses. Documents referring to the use of this extraordinary relationship in recovery processes date back until the old Greco-Roman times (Bachi, Terkel, Teichman, 2011).
The assumption that human-animal bonds can have positive psychological effects for the person investing into such a relationship (Bachi, Terkel, Teichman, 2011) has led to the establishment of equine-assisted therapy, which is a form of psychotherapy. It makes use of the framework of attachment theory (Bowlby, 1958) and assumes that horses can serve as
Isolation, no contact to their family and friends and being under constant supervision poses a challenge on inmates of how to cope with their loneliness, emotional disturbance, and diminished sense of self-worth. To help themselves, prison inmates mostly engage in emotion-focused coping strategies (Picken, 2012). According to Moos and Billings (1982), this approach works by distraction, trying to manage hostile feelings and practicing to forgive others, by sharing feelings, building social bonds and creating trust, as well as by practicing to redefine perceptions of situations. Combining the needs and problems of prison inmates with the beneficial attributes of horses as therapeutic mediums might be a promising combination to a successful coping approach. As a matter of fact, equestrian programs are offered in some prisons especially in America. In such horse training programs inmates engage in vocational training by building skills and providing supervised care for the horses. Such programs are different from the typical equine-facilitated therapies but nevertheless build up on the same assumption, that human-horse bonds can have positive psychological