Positive Horse Training: For Equine Assisted Services

By Becky Strassner

Create a safer, more willing, trusting, communicative partner. Horses will bond with us once they know we will listen and are willing to help them feel heard and safe. Trauma informed care principles and positive teachings apply to both horses and humans. When we train and incorporate horses into our equine assisted services, we consider the emotional well-being of the horses and clients. When we rescue traumatized horses, we can apply these same humane principles we use to help humans.
Here is a concise guide to safe, ethical training for horses. Learn how to connect authentically without threat or fear. Personal examples and stories of transformation by the author included. Becky is a certified, designated horse professional with over ten years of facilitating equine assisted services for a varied population, including individuals, families, organizations, veterans with PTS, homeless veterans in transition, active-duty military and spouses, residential treatment center teens, and foster children. She has a psychology degree and has trained hundreds of horses and mentored their owners for over thirty years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Becky Strassner
• Release date: Aug 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885674065

Book preview

Positive Horse Training     

For Equine Assisted Services

Abstract girl and Mo and Jack

Trauma Informed Care Principles for Horses Incorporated in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, Mental Health Wellness and Educational Services

image0

Picture by Halle McAdoo

Dedicated to my granddaughter, Halle, who in her          5 year old wisdom, said all a horse needs is a friend.

Positive Horse Training     

For Equine Assisted Services

Abstract girl and Mo and Jack

Trauma Informed Care Principles for Horses Incorporated in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, Mental Health Wellness and Educational Services

Becky Strassner

Copyright © 2022 by Becky Strassner

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned,

or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.

First Edition July 2022

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN Image for Positive Horse Training

Foreword and Acknowledgements

I hadn’t intended to write this guide. Yet these ideas had been brewing for so long that once I came upon the principles of Trauma Informed Care (TIC), everything naturally came flowing out in writing. The burning questions I seemed to never get a clear answer on had been following me for years. I asked the same questions to other horse professionals providing equine assisted services, and hadn’t yet received an answer.

Do our ways of horse training affect the experiences of the equine assisted services we provide?  If so, is there common ground we can find between approaches that allows for optimal experiences for both humans and horses in our sessions?

Possibly no one thought these questions were important. I wasn’t convinced they were, either. But they kept nagging me for years. I had learned from a number of instructors and clinicians, all with different approaches to training and handling horses. I tried most of them, with varying success. In time, like most evolving trainers, I created my own way of working with horses, picking and pulling from many years of experience and learning from both human and horse teachers.

Maybe soon research will answer these questions. Meanwhile….

"Empathy is a strange and powerful thing. There is no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It’s simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of You’re not alone.  -Brene Brown

Ethical trainers are concerned with the total well-being of horses in their care. Their training approach evolves over a lifetime. They become empathetic teachers and students of the horse.

I am advocating for certain principles to be mindful of when training horses to incorporate in equine assisted psychotherapy, wellness, and educational services. The Trauma Informed Care (TIC) principles contained in this manual are a guide for those who are interested in freeing up their horses to be curious, relational and fully present to connect with humans in a meaningful way. They dovetail with our purpose of helping individuals, families, and organizations, and providing equine assisted psychotherapy sessions in an atmosphere of safety, trust and openness. Empathy is healing for both people and horses.

I express a deep gratitude to my human and horse teachers, family, friends and Arenas for Change (ARCH) community whose collective wisdom inspired and assisted me in this endeavor. Many thanks to Ulla Frederiksen, Jenny Atlee-Loudon and Fred Bueltmann of Red Horse Center for Collaborative Leadership.  Their insightful Healing Culture workshop led me to further explore Trauma Informed Care principles and the connection to how we