Matlock Sarah K, Singh Ashley, Grandin Temple, Merritt Tamara, Nett Terry, Reega Sarah Jean, Peters B Caitlin
Department of Animal Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
Hearts & Horses Therapeutic Riding Center, Loveland, CO 80537, USA.
Transl Anim Sci. 2025 Feb 27;9:txaf027. doi: 10.1093/tas/txaf027. eCollection 2025.
Equine-assisted learning (EAL) is gaining in popularity due to its demonstrated benefits to participants, including increased social-emotional competencies and self-efficacy, and decreased symptoms of depression. Accordingly, EAL is increasingly utilized as a method to build soft skills for people who have a history of trauma and/or who may struggle with emotional regulation. Within the context of equine-assisted services (EAS) broadly, there is some evidence that participants who have trauma and/or emotional dysregulation may cause increased stress to horses when compared to interactions with other types of EAS participants (e.g., participants with cognitive delays, physical disabilities, etc.). It is important to understand the impacts of EAL for individuals with a history of trauma on the well-being of the horse. The purpose of this pilot study was to identify and compare the presence of behavioral and physiological indicators of stress in horses integrated into an EAL program for youth with a history of trauma who struggle with emotional regulation (n = 11) compared to the control condition of an EAL program for young adults with developmental delays (n = 7). Indicators of stress included salivary cortisol, eye temperature, and equine behaviors indicative of stress. We did not find significant differences in the indicators of stress in the horses when interacting with the youth with a history of trauma compared to the control condition (salivary cortisol, p = 0.55; eye temperature, p = 0.39; behavioral indicators of stress, p = 0.81). Contrary to previous findings, we did not find evidence that EAL with youth with a history of trauma increased the stress of the participating horses in comparison to EAL for a different population (young adults with developmental disabilities). Furthermore, we also found that physiological measures of stress were within normal ranges for both the experimental condition and control condition, providing further evidence that EAL does not appear to increase physiological stress in horses beyond normal ranges.
马术辅助学习（EAL）因其对参与者具有诸多已被证实的益处而越来越受欢迎，这些益处包括增强社交情感能力和自我效能感，以及减轻抑郁症状。因此，EAL越来越多地被用作一种方法，为有创伤史和/或可能在情绪调节方面存在困难的人培养软技能。在广义的马术辅助服务（EAS）背景下，有证据表明，与其他类型的EAS参与者（如认知迟缓、身体残疾等参与者）互动相比，有创伤和/或情绪失调的参与者可能会给马匹带来更大的压力。了解EAL对有创伤史的个体的影响对马匹福祉的作用非常重要。这项试点研究的目的是识别并比较纳入针对有创伤史且在情绪调节方面存在困难的青少年的EAL项目（n = 11）中的马匹，与针对发育迟缓的年轻成年人的EAL项目的对照条件（n = 7）下，马匹压力的行为和生理指标的存在情况。压力指标包括唾液皮质醇、眼温以及表明压力的马匹行为。与对照条件相比，当与有创伤史的青少年互动时，我们未发现马匹压力指标存在显著差异（唾液皮质醇，p = 0.55；眼温，p = 0.39；压力行为指标，p = 0.81）。与之前的研究结果相反，我们没有发现证据表明，与针对不同人群（发育性残疾的年轻成年人）的EAL相比，与有创伤史的青少年进行EAL会增加参与其中的马匹的压力。此外，我们还发现，无论是实验条件还是对照条件下，压力的生理指标都在正常范围内，这进一步证明EAL似乎不会使马匹的生理压力增加到超出正常范围。
