Müller-Klein Alicia, Braun Moritz Nicolai, Ferreira de Sá Diana S, Michael Tanja, Link-Dorner Ulrike, Lass-Hennemann Johanna
Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany.
Institut für Tiergestützte Ausbildung und Therapie (ITAT), Eschringerstraße 70, 66131 Saarbrücken, Germany.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Feb 13;14(4):604. doi: 10.3390/ani14040604.
Equine-assisted therapies are becoming increasingly popular for addressing physical and psychological disabilities in clients. The role of the horse's welfare in equine-assisted service receives increasing attention in research. Several studies have shown that horses are able to perceive human emotions and respond to human stress responses. However, no research has yet looked at the other side of the coin-whether and how humans perceive and react to equine stress levels during equine-assisted services. To fill this gap in the research, we employed a within-subjects design, in which horse-naïve participants had a standardized interaction with both an experimentally stressed horse and an experimentally relaxed horse. We assessed physiological indicators of stress (heart rate, heart rate variability, and salivary cortisol) in participants and horses, as well as psychological indicators of stress (state anxiety and positive and negative affect) in participants. Although our stress and relaxation manipulations were successful (indicated by horses' physiological indicators of stress), we did not find any difference in the participants' physiological or psychological indicators of stress between the interaction with a stressed and the interaction with a relaxed horse. Together with results from previous studies, this suggests that humans cannot intuitively recognize the (physiological) stress level of horses, which has important implications for effective communication and bonding between humans and horses and for the safety of equine activities.
马术辅助疗法在帮助客户解决身体和心理残疾方面越来越受欢迎。在马术辅助服务中，马匹福利的作用在研究中受到越来越多的关注。几项研究表明，马能够感知人类的情绪并对人类的应激反应做出回应。然而，尚未有研究探讨问题的另一面——在马术辅助服务期间，人类是否以及如何感知马的应激水平并做出反应。为了填补这一研究空白，我们采用了一种被试内设计，让不熟悉马的参与者与一匹经实验诱导产生应激反应的马和一匹经实验诱导处于放松状态的马进行标准化互动。我们评估了参与者和马的应激生理指标（心率、心率变异性和唾液皮质醇），以及参与者的应激心理指标（状态焦虑和正负性情绪）。尽管我们的应激和放松操作是成功的（由马的应激生理指标表明），但我们没有发现参与者在与应激马互动和与放松马互动之间的应激生理或心理指标存在任何差异。结合先前研究的结果，这表明人类无法直观地识别马的（生理）应激水平，这对人与马之间的有效沟通和建立联系以及马术活动的安全具有重要意义。
