Equine Facilitated
Mental Health (EFMH)
How and Why It Works For Boys
and Girls at TRAILS Carolina
By Susan Platt, TRAILS Equine Specialist
At TRAILS Carolina, equine therapy is a key component to the TRAILS way of working with adolescents. We begin the process by introducing and practicing the fundamentals of horse training. Progressing at their own rate, students reach a level of competence in which they are able to safely ride bareback around set obstacles using only a rope halter to help guide their horse.
Our goals are:
- To teach the student how to communicate with the horse in a clear and consistent manner.
- To help the student develop more feel, better timing and more harmony with the horse.
- To progress to where the horse not only has no opposition reflex, but now also has “Positive Reflexes.”
- To integrate these communication tools and positive attitudes into the students everyday life.
By completing initiatives, journal entries and demonstrating competencies, the students progress through the EFMH books. The work includes answering questions about their experiences with the horses and how they may be applied to their everyday relationships, as well as learning and understanding the principles of successful communication skills.
The impact of EMFH never ceases to amaze me. Following are some of the many, many ways I have found this form of equine therapy to be successful:
- As they care for, train, and even ride horses, troubled adolescents develop a relationship with a neutral animal. Over time the horse can wordlessly provide insight into their problematic patterns and help them develop new ways of communicating and relating.
- Horses can also help isolate ways in which someone is telegraphing certain attitudes or beliefs. Often a stance, a tone of voice, or even a facial expression can communicate volumes but be ingrained and therefore difficult to identify. With the horse’s immediate feedback, the adolescent learns to locate his messaging in the moment. Combine this with the incentive of wanting to gain the horse’s trust (a desire that manifests in all but the most pathological cases), an adolescent will learn to modify the message he is projecting, an adjustment which over time through an outside-in mechanism, changes his internal experience for the better.
- Since most of the interaction between a human being and horse occurs non-verbally, equine therapy is ideally suited to teenagers, who feel strongly but often struggle when talking about their experiences. With a horse, they are not expected to talk so much as they are expected to be. In this way, the horse is training them toward awareness of, and eventually control over, internal states. This is a skill that develops the student's confidence and helps bridge the gap to better communications with their verbal counterparts.
- Horse's size offers a perfect opportunity to overcome fear and develop confidence. Accomplishing a task involving the horse, in spite of those fears, creates confidence and provides for wonderful metaphors for dealing with other intimidating and challenging situations.
- Horses are social animals, with distinct personalities, attitudes and moods. Working with them and caring for them requires effort --there's no easy way out. No quick tricks.
- Horses have the ability to mirror exactly what human body language is telling them. People complain that the horse is stubborn or antagonistic. "But the lesson to be learned is that if they change themselves, the horses respond differently."
Incorporating the components of Equine Facilitated Mental Health into the TRAILS philosophy of working with the whole child, through therapeutic, academic, and physical situations, provides adolescents with the tools and abilities to meaningfully experience and meet their goals. EMFH serves as an excellent complement to the TRAILS way of working and achieving with students.
Susan “Susi” Platt grew up in Switzerland and began riding at age 5. She received her BS in Art Education from the University of South Florida and holds an NARHA Advanced Therapeutic Riding Instructor Certification. Prior to joining TRAILS, she worked as a teacher for Brevard Academy and as a riding instructor at Free Rein Therapeutic Riding Center in Brevard, North Carolina. Susi may be reached at 828-885-5920 or splatt@trailscarolina.com.
TRAILS Carolina is a comprehensive therapeutic wilderness program developed specifically to address the “whole child.” TRAILS' use of proven methods and clinical therapies including wilderness expeditions, equine therapy, and experiential academics help change troubling self-destructive behavior, guide adolescents up new paths of self-awareness, lead families towards a healthy reunification, and reengage students in an appreciation of academic challenge and learning.
To learn more, contact Mark Oerther or Graham Shannonhouse at 888-387-2457.