By Amanda Minervini
Students today are facing a mental health crisis. According to surveys of college students, the percentage of students diagnosed with an anxiety disorder varies by source, but is generally between 34% and 37% according to this article, this study and this article -> web surveys taken by 96,000 U.S. students across 133 campuses in the 2021-22 academic year. It found that 44% of students reported symptoms of depression
Helping students develop meaningful relationships with animals, with a special focus on equines.
My goals are to uproot anthropocentrism, to nurture emotional well-being, self-awareness, and mindfulness through equine-assisted learning. Stats on Healing with horses
I was born in the city of Bari, Southern Italy, with an inexplicable passion for horses since I can remember. As an early teen and without a driving license, I frequently and in a somewhat rocambolesque manner, managed to escape the concrete of the city to spend time with horses in our beautiful Apulian countryside. At age 25, I moved to the USA and began my graduate studies, during which these happy escapes became a lot harder and infrequent but I could never completely disconnect from horses. In 2022, as an assistant professor at Colorado College, I founded a nonprofit organization, the Equine-Guided Learning and Healing Experience (EGLHE) to help students develop meaningful relationships with animals, with a special focus on equines. EGLHE is my personal approach to supporting learning while paying attention to mental health, one that fosters a deep and transformative relationship between humans and equines, and which ultimately benefits everyone involved. My goals are to uproot anthropocentrism, to nurture emotional well-being, self-awareness, and mindfulness through equine-assisted learning. I studied equine behavior and ethology, as well as Warwick Schiller’s Attuned Horsemanship, Lockie Phillips’ Emotional Horsemanship, Rupert Isaacson’s Athena and Movement Method, Masterson Method, Balance through Movement Method, and horse brain seminars. I created my own ethology-based and ethical method blending principles from each of these approaches, especially Warwick Schiller’s Attuned Horsemanship, with a student-centered pedagogy, focusing on trauma-informed practices and the healing power of the human-animal-nature connection.
As a donors-supported nonprofit organization under IRC section 501(c)(3), all activities offered through EGLHE are free of charge. I believe that horses, as sentient beings, can play an essential role in promoting mental health and personal growth, which is why I focus on creating an environment where young people, especially students, can connect mindfully with horses and gain valuable insights into themselves through a relationship where horses are the leaders of the interactions, they are listened to, and the sessions develop on the equine’s own terms. My own Thoroughbred horse Jimmy (Brown Almighty, born in 2010), a horse with a past of behavioral issues, is the one who inspired me to move from a more traditional and anthropocentric way of interacting with equines, to a consent-based approach, at the basis of which there is a lot of try, mutual trust, love, and understanding.
With my background as an experienced educator and human/equine relations advisor, I developed the EGLHE method to integrate academic learning with the healing power of horses. The horses involved in our program are treated with the utmost care and respect. They live in species-appropriate environments, receive top-notch veterinary care, and are given the freedom to express themselves. Importantly, they also have the choice to opt out of a session if they do not wish to participate. Sessions start and develop through observations and asks, never with demands.
At the heart of EGLHE is my belief that equines are highly emotionally intelligent beings who can play an essential role in supporting mental health and personal growth in humans, while also gaining something themselves. It is not difficult to read signs of curiosity and willing engagement in the equines involved in sessions, and often I have observed them having excellent moods lasting even a day or two after a session. I believe horses also benefit from the activities of this program because they enjoy our efforts to understand their requests, collaborating for a game, or communicating how and if they want to play, be touched, scratched, or left alone. I work with a wide range of people, although my specialization is college students, to create an environment where they can learn to connect mindfully with horses and, through this connection, gain insights into themselves. The horses involved in the program (as of today they are a Thoroughbred, a Mustang, and 5 miniature horses), are treated with the utmost care and respect, living in species-appropriate environments and receiving the best possible veterinary care. Horses are also given the freedom to express themselves, and they also have the choice not to participate in a session should they feel that way. However, typically horses are asked to participate in 1-3 sessions per month, with each session lasting about 1.5 hours. Until now, they all have chosen every time to leave their pasture, mates, and food to come and play with humans. Whenever possible, the EGLHE activities are conducted with horses at liberty (for safety issues, and because we operate at a boarding facility which we do not own, when moving from one area to another we have to lead horses with halters and lead ropes).
I rooted EGLHE in the principles of Equine-Assisted Learning (EAL), a field that has demonstrated promising results in improving mental health, particularly for individuals dealing with trauma, anxiety, ADHD, and PTSD. Although my EGLHE method is relatively new, there is a growing body of research supporting the effectiveness of EAL in enhancing emotional regulation, focus, and interpersonal skills. As an educator whose training includes autism-awareness, I have been able to find common principles between student-center pedagogies (including pedagogies focused on neurodiverse students) and attuned horsemanship. For example, both humans and equines learn better if they feel safe, well-rested, and in a supportive environment, but how many educators are truly aware of the emotional state of each students, each day? Additionally, both humans and equines benefit from a learning environment that allows for freedom of physical movement. This is something neuroscientists have known for a long time, and yet we still make our students sit at their tables for hours (I make efforts to set up a much more active classroom, and I would really welcome the support of my college administration to fund the necessary changes, as well as the EGLHE activities).
EGLHE’s Mission and Goals
EGLHE’s foundational goals are multifaceted and focus on both mental health and fostering a deeper connection between humans and horses. The program seeks to:
- Support Mental Health and Focus: Recognizing the therapeutic effects of horses on individuals, EGLHE works to improve students’ emotional well-being, particularly in areas like anxiety, PTSD, and ADHD. Even students who do not have identifiable mental health conditions benefit from the calming, grounding presence of the horses.
- Develop Self-Awareness and Empathy: Students engage in activities that promote self-reflection, non-judgmental connection, and empathy. By observing and interacting with the horses and with each other in a beautiful, natural environment, students learn to acknowledge and regulate their own emotions and reactions, as well as how to recognize and respond to the emotions of others, both human and non-humans, which helps them achieve emotional and somatic congruence.
- Encourage Mindful Interactions: The program encourages students to interact with horses in a way that respects their autonomy and equality. The emphasis is on mindfulness—being present in the moment and engaging with the horse in an authentic, congruent, and non-hierarchical way.
- Teach Non-Hierarchical, Relational Horsemanship: One of the core philosophies of EGLHE is that horses are not tools to be trained for a goal decided by a human, but sentient beings with their own needs, desires, and boundaries. The program emphasizes a partnership approach with the horse, where both the human and the horse work together and the horse’s input is taken seriously and with careful consideration. This philosophy challenges traditional notions of “training” and promotes a more equitable and compassionate interaction. It also shows how equines may have valuable lessons for us humans if we are willing to listen and put the time it takes (what I call “horse time”).
- Have Fun: While mental health and learning are central to the program, EGLHE also strives to make the experience enjoyable for both equines and humans. It recognizes that joy, play, and fun are crucial components of personal growth and healing for everyone involved. The addition of five mini horses to the program, in collaboration with our sister organization, The Biscuit Buddies, has added a notable “cute factor” that, however, does not diminish in any way the stakes of being in a relation with a different species.
Key Principles of EGLHE
The EGLHE method is underpinned by several guiding principles that inform both the interactions between humans and horses, as well as the relationships between students and their own learning processes. These principles include:
– Attunement: This refers to the emotional connection between individuals—human and horse alike. According to Sarah Schlote, a trauma and attachment psychotherapist, attunement involves “being seen, being heard, feeling felt, and getting gotten.” It is about recognizing and responding to the emotional states of others with sensitivity and care. Horses, being highly perceptive animals, excel at attunement, making them ideal partners in therapeutic learning.
– Connection: Gareth Mare, the founder of Heartfelt Horsemanship, defines connection as a horse knowing that any request made of them is considerate of their well-being and safety. This principle highlights the importance of mutual respect in human-animal relationships and aligns with EGLHE’s emphasis on equality and mindful interaction. I learned more ways of connecting with equines from Warwick Schiller, recently featured on the NY Times Magazine: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/12/magazine/warwick-schiller-horses.html
– Horsemanship: Mark Rashid, an expert in humane horsemanship, states that “horsemanship is the art of mastering our own movements, thoughts, emotions, and behavior, not the horses.” This definition reinforces the idea that true horsemanship is about self-awareness and self-regulation, rather than dominating the animal. In the EGLHE program, the focus is on understanding the horse’s needs and behaviors, not controlling them.
Student Experiences with EGLHE
The feedback from students who have participated in EGLHE is overwhelmingly positive. Many students say that their experiences with the horses during EGLHE sessions have helped them feel more calm, centered, and emotionally grounded. For example, students who experience anxiety, particularly around exams, have shared that spending time with the horses helped them relax and focus, reducing their stress levels. Some students noted that interacting with the horses helped them sleep better, as they no longer felt as anxious when they returned to their dorms. Several students also mentioned the therapeutic benefits of connecting with a sentient animal in a mindful and non-judgmental way. They observed how horses like Jimmy respond carefully to human cues, and many noted how their interactions with him helped them develop a deeper understanding of how much more there is to understanding animal behavior and mutual communication. Some students who had previous experience with horses were struck by how different the EGLHE approach was from traditional methods of “training” horses. They appreciated the non-hierarchical interaction, where the horse was seen as an equal partner, rather than an animal to be controlled. The key is listening, not “whispering” to horses. In addition to the emotional benefits, students also learned valuable lessons about patience, empathy, and communication. Through the process of leading and working with the horses, they became more attuned to their own emotional responses and began to see how their feelings and behaviors impacted others. This understanding of non-verbal communication and empathy extends beyond the interactions with horses and influences students’ relationships with their peers and academic work.
Students who have been part of the program have made a short documentary to describe their experiences. Available for free on the EGLHE website, https://amandaminervini.weebly. com/eglhe.html it won the Best Student Documentary Award at the Equus International Film Festival, Dillon, MT in September 2024.
For more information and donations, please visit: https://amandaminervini.weebly. com/eglhe.html
Photocredit: Photos 1, 2, 4, 5 by Lonnie Timmons III; all other photos are by the author.
