Equine-assisted therapy on autistic people
Equine-assisted therapy or equine-assisted therapy on autistic people is a therapy using a mediating horse or pony. A session can take place on foot or on horseback. Equine-assisted therapy is one of the few animal-assisted therapies regularly studied for its effectiveness, and the most popular of all autism therapies. For a long time, the effect of contact with horses on people with autism has been known only in fragmented terms, through isolated testimonials, such as that of Temple Grandin, a doctor of zootechnics, in her autobiography Emergence: Labeled autistic in 1986. Equine-assisted therapy was popularized by the 2009 book and film The horse boy, in which the author describes her autistic son's progress during a trip to Mongolia. Since 2005, various studies have examined the effectiveness of this intervention, which was upgraded from "controversial" to "promising" status in 2007. As the application of equine-assisted therapy to autistic people is recent, these studies remain few and far between. Equine-assisted therapy offers clinically significant reductions in disability in the areas of communication, perception, attention and emotion regulation. It increases volition, reduces hyperactivity and improves sensory integration in people with autism. In 2016, the scientific community agreed that it was the most effective animal-assisted therapy available to people with autism. Using an animal capable of responding to specific needs, it is not, however, suitable for all autistic people. Furthermore, the sessions are relatively expensive, and require considerable human resources. The horse is the pioneering animal in animal-assisted therapy, and by far the most widely used in this type of intervention. At the same time, equine-assisted therapy is the most popular animal-assisted therapy for autism. This therapy is described and conceived as a form of care, and not as a leisure activity or learning to ride adapted to autistic people. Its aim is to provide therapeutic assistance.
