Mental health benefits of mounted equine‐assisted therapies: A scoping review

Abstract

Across mental health professionals, there is growing interest in the field of Equine‐Assisted Therapy (EAT). Preliminary evidence suggests EAT is beneficial for a wide spectrum of client populations. EAT programs may be based on groundwork alone, where participants interact with the horses from the ground only, or they may incorporate mounted activities. It remains unclear whether mounted activities add therapeutic benefits to the EAT experience for participants. This scoping review explored whether mounted activities, specifically where the client rides the horse, contribute to distinct therapeutic benefits. Nine databases were searched for studies of EAT programs that included horse riding as a central component of the therapeutic intervention and 36 studies were included in the analysis. The results of these studies suggest that mounted activities positively contribute to a variety of issues experienced by different client groups. However, further quality research is needed to carefully examine riding activities as an independent phenomenon, in order to establish what contribution‐mounted activities, over and above groundwork, make to any therapeutic benefit of the EAT experience.

Evaluation of equine assisted learning in education for primary school children: a qualitative study of the perspectives of teachers

“…Therapy involving horses can be divided in to two broad categories: therapy aimed at improving mental health and therapy aimed at improving physical health. The range of conditions that utilize horses is vast from those with Cerebral Palsy (Menor-Rodríguez et al, 2021), after life changing physical injuries (Portaro et al, 2020), ADHD (Pérez-Gómez et al, 2021), Autism (Gabriels et al, 2018;Maresca et al, 2020), and Mental Health conditions (Ward et al, 2022). Work has also been done with at risk adolescents (Trotter et al, 2008), young people with adverse childhood experiences (Tsantefski et al, 2017;Craig, 2020) and young offenders (Hemingway et al, 2015).…”

“…Work has also been done with at risk adolescents (Trotter et al, 2008), young people with adverse childhood experiences (Tsantefski et al, 2017;Craig, 2020) and young offenders (Hemingway et al, 2015). Within the categories of mental health and physical health the therapy can be subdivided into grounded equine assisted therapies (Grounded-EAT) or mounted equine assisted therapies (Mounted-EAT) (Ward et al, 2022). Grounded-EAT as the name suggests is almost exclusively groundwork-based activities with no mounting or riding of the horses allowed (Lac, 2017).…”

Effects of Equine-Assisted Therapy on Recovery after Stroke – A Systematic Review

“…(Baek and Kim, 2014, Bunketorp-Käll et al ., 2017 b ) The former in particular provides an enriched environment, ultimately leading to a higher training motivation and improved psychological outcome. (Bunketorp-Käll et al ., 2017 b ; Vive et al ., 2022; Ward et al ., 2022)…”