The Behavioral Cost of Care: Changes in Maintenance Behavior during Equine-Assisted Interventions.
Authors: Fournier Angela K, French Megan, Letson Elizabeth A, Hanson Joy, Berry Thomas D, Cronin Sarah
Journal: Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
Summary
# Editorial Summary: The Behavioural Cost of Care in Equine-Assisted Interventions Equine-assisted interventions for human mental health and learning are expanding rapidly, yet the welfare implications for participating horses remain poorly understood. Fournier and colleagues employed ethological observation methods to quantify changes in horse maintenance behaviours during equine-assisted psychosocial learning sessions with young people, recording 1,600 observations of alertness, feeding and movement patterns before, during and after intervention activities. The horses demonstrated significant alterations in all three maintenance behaviours whilst engaged with clients—with increased alertness and reduced feeding during sessions—which returned towards baseline levels afterwards, suggesting these interventions impose measurable physiological and behavioural costs. Analysis of 267 human-equid interactive sequences revealed an asymmetrical relationship: humans initiated most interactions, to which horses predominantly failed to respond or attempted to avoid, yet humans readily reciprocated when horses initiated contact. For equine professionals involved in therapy programmes, these findings underscore the importance of monitoring individual horses for accumulated stress responses and building adequate rest periods into intervention schedules to maintain both welfare standards and programme sustainability.
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Practical Takeaways
- •Monitor horses used in therapeutic programs for behavioral stress indicators including changes in eating, alertness, and movement patterns during and after sessions, as significant behavioral disruptions were documented.
- •Recognize that horses in assisted interventions predominantly avoid or do not respond to human interaction attempts, suggesting potential welfare costs that should be balanced against intervention benefits.
- •Consider rotation schedules and recovery periods for therapy horses, as maintenance behavior disruptions indicate these animals experience behavioral strain during psychosocial learning sessions with clients.
Key Findings
- •Equine alertness, eating behavior, and ambulation varied significantly before, during, and after equine-assisted sessions (1600 observations recorded).
- •Equids showed dominant responses of no response (most common) followed by avoidance to human approach, while humans reciprocated when approached by equids.
- •Human-animal interaction during sessions was predominantly initiated by humans toward equids (267 sequences of approach-response behavior recorded).
- •Interruptions to typical maintenance behaviors represent an important welfare consideration in multispecies symbiotic relationships during animal-assisted interventions.