FAQ's

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Sessions are from 50 or 80 minutes. The sessions are confidential and hands on with an Equine Assisted Psychotherapist, an Equine Professional and the Equine Partner.  Sessions are usually Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings.

Two different types of sessions are offered and selected by your professional team: Ground work or Rhythmic Riding.

Ground Work:  Most of the sessions takes place on the ground working with your equine partner to make a connection.  The sessions are outdoors and can include Equine activities including observing, handling, and grooming with side-by-side specially-selected horses, and trained professionals.

Rhythmic riding therapy sessions are on the horse to help the client to self and coregulate.  When the client is on the horse and the horse walks, it naturally emulates a left/right and a forward/back movement in the rider's body.  The Ct and the staff work on different parts of the body that may be holding the stress of anxiety  or trauma.

The science behind this:  

The right side of the brain (Amygdala) is like an alarm system and is in charge of emotional regulation.  The Left side of the brain (L) is for executive function; making decisions, (L)ogic putting things in order (L)inear and (L)anguage.  When the right side of the brain activates over and over, sometimes it gets stuck.  Now the Left (L)ogical side of the brain goes offline and the right side then becomes dominate.  The body is the first thing to notice this domination.  The body will react in different ways to cope; tension in our muscle groups, which tell the brain "UH OH", something is going on, so it sends a signal to the brain to send out more adrenaline, resulting in heart racing and rapid breathing. The brain also sends out Cortisol to the muscle groups which gets us ready for a flight/fight or a freeze reaction. We need to do something to activate the left side of the brain and body to bring it back online so that the right side of the brain (the regulation of emotions) doesn't stay dominate.  Any movement of the body that is left/right will help bring back a balance and this releases the body from tension.  This in turn will slow down your heart rate and breathing and relax your muscles.

Once we become aware of where our body is holding this or reacting, then we can learn to relax and breathe and we are better able to handle our thoughts, feelings and reactions.  When the client is on the horse and the horse walks, it naturally emulates this left/right and forward/back movement in the rider's body and thus releasing this tension.