THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EQUINE-ASSISTED ACTIVITIES AND PSYCHOTHERAPY ON EMOTION REGULATION: A RANDOMIZED-CONTROLLED TRIAL

Abstract

While there is increased involvement of animals in the clinical setting, studies investigating this form of complementary therapy suffer from methodological limitations that diminish the veracity of their findings. The involvement of horses in clinical settings for the improvement of mental health outcomes is known as Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP), whereas participating in horsemanship activities with the horse without the involvement of a mental health professional is known as Equine-Assisted Activities (EAA). This study investigated the effectiveness of EAP and EAA on two strategies of emotion regulation, cognitive reappraisal and emotional suppression. In a single-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial, 90 young adults (21 males, 69 females) were randomly assigned to the EAP (N = 31), EAA (N = 26), or Placebo-Control (N = 33) condition, and then followed up 1 week after the experimental session. While results found no significant differences between conditions for cognitive reappraisal, both EAP and EAA revealed significant reductions in emotional suppression compared to the Placebo-Control condition. Results provide experimental evidence for the human-horse bond component present in both EAP and EAA, and theoretical implications are discussed.