Neuroplasticity and the human/equine connection

Winston Churchill once said; “there is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”

This quote has always hung in our barn, and as a child, I always wondered what it meant. What was it about my childhood pony, Peaches, on the outside, that was good for me on the inside?! Looking back, the answer to that was the confidence and grounding Peaches brought to me through my coming of age. The quiet sigh of understanding as my adolescent friends left me out from a gathering, or when hormones drove me into tears because “nothing felt quite right.”

This continued throughout my life. Each new pony and each new horse gave back to me in a completely unique and special way. They were guiding me therapeutically, and I didn’t even know it.

Columbia University Irving Medical Center recently published a study looking at the effects that Equine Assisted Psychotherapy has on war veteran survivors diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. This November 2021 study is the first university-led study evaluating PTSD and equines, and protocols to guide practitioners. Finally, horses are beginning to get the recognition they deserve in healing humans, and finally, my career path is getting the recognition and research it deserves!

The study was in-depth, but a takeaway is as follows; “Both PTSD patients and horses are preoccupied with ongoing concerns about trust and safety. This innovative therapy facilitates bonding, overcoming fear, and re-establishing confidence,” said Dr. Neria, professor of medical psychology (in psychiatry and epidemiology) and director of Columbia’s PTSD program. One must build trust with a horse for it to warm to you.

Through horse-human interaction, veterans can relearn how to recognize their feelings, regulate emotions, and better communicate, as well as build trust and come to trust themselves again—all valuable tools to help them succeed with family, work, and social relationships,” Dr. Fisher said.” (Clinical Journal of Psychiatry).

One of my previous posts addressed how therapy with horses can help re-create new neural pathways from ones that have been damaged in the brain due to chronic traumatic stress, PTSD, and biopsychosocial adversity.

Let’s talk science for one second.

Neuroplasticity is the event of new connections of neural pathways being made, the re-creation or rewiring of the brain, if you will. So with the tools to heal and grow, we can create these new neural pathways that will provide us with the stabilization of mental health symptoms and diagnoses related to past trauma.

Co-regulating with equines, building a trusting rapport, accepting and respecting the boundaries our equine partners show and teach us during session, even when it’s hard, and the energy exchange that takes place all work together to heal the brain. Literally, rewire it. No matter what you have been through, the level of adversity you have experienced, how stuck you may feel, how trauma may make you feel like your brain will never function as it once did, there is evidence based research that engaging with horses under a therapeutic lens can and WILL jumpstart neuroplasticity resulting in your emotional wellness, healing, and inner peace.

You deserve to heal.

You are not alone.

Our horses have so much to teach you.

Gabrielle Johansen, LICSW, ESMHL