Margi Stickney, MS, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Promotion and Kinesiology in the University of Kentucky’s College of Education, has been interested in the therapeutic benefits of animals since her early days as a graduate student at UK. As a lifelong horse person and volunteer at Central Kentucky Riding for Hope (CKRH) since 2001, she began exploring the benefits of equine interaction through the Kentucky Horse Park’s Mustang Troop during her graduate studies. The Mustang Troop pairs inner-city kids with formerly wild mustangs with the hope that the horses will teach participants empathy and responsibility to prevent at-risk behaviors.

As a student of health promotion and kinesiology, Stickney became increasingly interested in horses’ physical and mental effects on humans, and she was surprised to learn that little research had been done in the area. At the suggestion of her professor, Jody Clasey, PhD, in UK’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion, Stickney began to explore the benefits of programs like CKRH for children with physical and mental disabilities. Most existing research had focused on cerebral-palsy populations, so Stickney’s focus shifted instead to autistic patients, who account for the majority of CKRH’s clientele. There is no published research in English on the effects of equine therapies on autistic patients. Kim Miller, PhD, also in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion, “was instrumental in guiding the qualitative design of my research,” Stickney said.

The variability in ages and symptoms made it necessary for her to use a qualitative rather than quantitative research design. Stickney created focus groups of CKRH instructors and volunteers and interviewed parents of autistic riders and asked them what changes they had noticed in the children since starting in a therapeutic riding program. Instructors and therapists believe the sensory input provided by the horse stimulates the brain and improves riders’ focus, as noted by a decrease in self-stimulating behaviors such as rocking or hand-flapping.

They also noted movement of the horse and the sensation of pressure experienced while mounted may affect the brain and central nervous system in a positive way, encouraging growth (as was suggested by the studies on cerebral palsy riders), which is especially beneficial, as scientists do not know the exact cause for autism. Therapy sessions allow the children more social interaction outside of their families with both instructors and horses, and they give patients the opportunity to transfer their relationship skills from horses to humans