Healing with Horses — A Journey to Wellness

Why Horses?

Horses are herd animals who naturally seek connection, much like we do. Connection is essential to our emotional and physical well-being, and horses offer it in a way that is pure, honest, and without judgment.

A horse will help us recognize our feelings and foster acceptance of ourselves and others. Each horse has its own personality, just like people, and will react differently to every individual and every action. These reactions provide immediate, unfiltered feedback that can lead to powerful personal insight.

Horses don’t lie. They don’t separate how they feel from how they act. Their ability to mirror human body language often reveals what words cannot. Many people say, “The horse is stubborn” or “The horse doesn’t like me,” but the real lesson is that when we change our approach, the horse’s response changes too. In this way, horses become honest, powerful messengers in the healing process.

Why Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP)?

Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy offers a unique path to personal growth and healing by:

Creating opportunities to practice new skills that transfer back to daily life
Engaging the whole person — mind, body, and emotions — to generate change
Encouraging decision-making and responsibility
Providing a non-threatening, motivational learning environment
Empowering clients with a sense of control
Breaking down emotional defense barriers
Enhancing problem-solving skills
Teaching empathy, patience, and responsibility
Offering immediate cause-and-effect experiences
Building trust in relationships
Decreasing feelings of hopelessness
Improving self-concept and self-worth

How It Works

In Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy, clients interact with horses through guided activities, then reflect on their experiences in collaboration with the therapist. This process helps reveal patterns in thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, and relationships, creating opportunities for lasting change.

EAP can be especially effective for individuals experiencing:

Fear or anxiety
Depression
Anger
Dissociation
PTSD
Relationship challenges
Other emotional or behavioral struggles

By working alongside the horses, clients learn more about themselves, strengthen emotional regulation, and gain tools that carry far beyond the pasture.

Why EAP for Veterans and Complex Trauma?

UNIQUE QUALITIES OF HORSES SPEED EMOTIONAL BREAKTHROUGHS

This is especially true for those suffering from PTSD. That’s because these highly attuned animals offer safe reflection and compelling feedback for fears and anxieties clients may be facing. In the hands of a skilled treatment team, the horses ’unique sensitivity can help clients understand their own internal processes more readily than hours of talk therapy.

HERD DYNAMICS CAN HELP CLIENTS UNDERSTAND THEIR OWN LIVES

Observing the dynamics of a herd of horses can help clients better understand the dynamics of their own family, military unit and community and provide another positive model for fostering collaboration, support and trust. The horses provide an emotionally safe way to work through and strengthen relationships in life – whether it be with others, the environment, beliefs, or themselves.

FOSTER RESILIENCE IN TIMES OF HIGH STRESS

The Eagala Military Services approach is based on experience and doing. The treatment sessions re-create life experiences, including those involving frustrations, high stress and relationship problems. This provides opportunities for service members and their families to re-discover their resources and strengths to overcome obstacles in a new context of civilian life after deployment and/or military service. They can apply this experience and gain in-the-moment feedback from the horses.

BREAK THROUGH BARRIERS TO CARE

Clients experience activities with horses that remove much of the perceived stigma associated with traditional talk therapy treatment methods. When treatment is about doing it’s more engaging, and engagement increases impact. Data is showing that this population is more likely to start and complete treatment with this model with less dropout and recidivism than traditional talk therapies. Military clients repeatedly report how quickly and deeply they get to the root of their issues and experience meaningful changes.

FIND REAL WORLD SOLUTIONS TO THE TOUGHEST CHALLENGES

Clients find their own solutions to the struggles in their lives. Under the direction of an Eagala Military Services Treatment Team, clients build on their resilience and learn through self-discovery the changes they need to make in order to be more successful in both military and civilian life.

*adapted for EAGALA.org