Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
It’s not about the model, it’s about the horse.
www.eapreport.com
Volume 1, Issue 9
In This Issue
May 18, 2012
What is the most unusual
thing you’ve ever seen in
an equine session?
W
Q&A: What is the most unusual thing
you’ve ever seen in an equine session?
PAGE 1
EAP Activity - NASCAR
PAGE 2
Interview with Gary Ferguson
ow good question, the one thing that happened
where I thought I better find a camera was a
client used bagpipes to move the horse. The session
was about relapse prevention, there were five different places in the working area where the client's had
to move the horse into without touching the horse.
One client said as part of his relapse prevention plan
he was going to enjoy more of his god given talents,
which included bagpipes, so he used them in the
activity. It was very interesting, not something that
happens everyday.
Diamond Ranch Academy
PAGE 3
Tools of the Trade
PAGE 4
Equine Communication - More than Eye
Contact and Body Language
PAGE 5
Saddle Up - Upcoming Events
PAGE 9
Please share with us an unusual
experience you have had.
Send to: [email protected]
EAP Activity
NASCAR
Equipment Needed:
A track outline in the arena that has a pit stop area,
some pot holes and an oil slick.
A white flag - one lap to go; a yellow flag - caution;
red flag - stop the race; black flag - something is
wrong with your car; checker flag - you won the race.
Population:
This activity is appropriate for small groups and families
A pace car
Area Needed:
Rules:
This activity requires a small arena or similar space.
The student and the horse must successfully complete the race and obey all the flags.
Objective:
The objective is to get yourself and your horse around
the NASCAR track for three laps. The NASCAR activity is designed to work on learning to be cooperative and to manage being competitive.
Metaphor:
“You are in charge of how you run the race”. The
race can be a metaphor for treatment, successful
home visit, getting back to school or anything else
the student needs to successfully complete. The horse
represents skills the student will need to successfully
complete the race, a support person who will help the
student complete the race or a value that will help the
student complete the race.
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May 18, 2012
Page 2
Gary Ferguson BS CSAC
Diamond Ranch Academy
EAGALA Advanced Certification,
Equine Specialist
Interviewed by MIKE RANDALL for eapREPORT.com
Born and
raised in
Northern
Utah, raising
and training
horses, campGary Ferguson
ing, dutch
oven cooking, skiing, and scouting.
My personal philosophy
exposing youth to a better way
of life through increasing their
self-esteem, confidence, skills
and talents.
Gary received his Bachelors of Science / Agricultural and General Business
from Utah State University. He
also just completed his LSAC.
is helping youth discover their
talents and interests, then exposing them to careers were they can
use these skills to enjoy working
the rest of their lives.
Gary and his wife Lorneta
For the past 35 years, I have
tried to kill Lorneta, we sold her
for less than half of what we paid
for her, but even after starting out
kind of rough we still had a great
love for horses.
dedicated my life to the betterment of youth through volunteer
and professional work.
Working at DRA allows me
I have found that all of your
life experiences help you into
where you’re at right now. I wish
I could have started my career
out doing EAP, but I realize you
need to have your life experience
as well as education to help mold
you into who you are right now.
Keep your instructions for
your clients as clear and brief as
possible in your EAP session,
when the session is over I like
to start the processing with the
question of what was your experience about. This helps me with
what they are experiencing not
what I'm seeing.
I like that outside with the
horses the clients let themselves
both are EAGALA certified and
they love working in this field.
come out and you can see how
their acting. Actions always
speak louder than words.
We started out with a sour,
old, rank horse and after she
We have six horses; two
of them are mustangs that were
captured as older horses. One
of these horses is awesome with
kids who are bullies.
to continue my life’s pursuit of
AQHA Registration Special
AQHA is offering a special to
make registering an aged horse
more affordable.
For more information go to aqha.com
eapREPORT
May 18, 2012
Page 3
Tools of the Trade
By Mike Randall
Advantage Experiential Services
y grandpa was a diesel mechanic by trade and
one of his golden rules was, “Never hire a
man until you look at his tools”.
He would say “You can learn a
lot about a man by looking at
his tools”. The same thing runs
in our profession, not only do I
want to see their horses and how
they handle them; I also take notice of their tack and EAP equipment. I'm a walk the walk kind
of person, and that is the kind of
people I want to work around.
equipment I keep in my tool box. The usual buckets,
balls, pipe, cones, index cards, ink pens, duck tape,
rope, tarps, and jump stands. The tools I also like to
use are race horse blinkers, hobbles, gun scabbard,
plastic steer head, shovel, grain sack, chaps, buggy
whip, cow bells, spurs, and an old
saddle and saddle pad. Sometimes
I will also roll a spare tire close
by. I don't like to use balloons or
noise makers. I also keep ten light
weight panels handy for a portable
round pen, for the on the road accounts. One thing I have learned
is don't put out stuff for the client
to use if you’re worried about it
getting ruined.
I thought I would share with you some of the EAP
Good luck with your toolbox of EAP equipment.
M
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May 18, 2012
Page 4
Equine Communication - More than
Eye Contact and Body Language
By Cheryl Eriksen, MSW
EAGALA Certified Equine Specialist
Path of the Peace Horse, www.peacehorse.net
I
t was a warm, sunny spring day. Five miniature
horses stood along the far fence of the arena, poking their heads through the boards and stretching
their lips towards the fresh, green grass shooting up
on the other side. This was my first EAGALA training and I was looking forward to an exciting new
learning opportunity. The first task on day one was
to “go get a horse” – in the usual EAGALA manner,
no further instruction was given. Three people went
out among the horses and each attempted to move
the horse they selected using a variety of methods.
I went to a dark-colored horse that had his back
turned to me. I approached the horse from his right
side ensuring he saw me before I touched him. I
stroked his neck to gain his attention while visualizing the two of us standing together in the center of
the arena. I then moved toward my preselected location with the horse following me closely. We stood
quietly in the center while the other participants
pulled, poked, prodded, clicked and kissed to their
horses with varying degrees of success.
cate with the horse (not a new idea by any means but
a whole generation of would-be horse trainers have
jumped on the “natural horsemanship” bandwagon).
Many who have followed these popular clinicians
have learned a great deal about how horses communicate but in many cases are limited (by choice or
by inexperience) to the various “training techniques”
popularized by the clinician. In other words, many
“horse communication experts” are still unaware
of the various levels and dimensions of non-verbal
communication utilized by horses which go far beyond the subtleties of body position and eye contact.
If you think of this from a horse’s perspective, we
are asking him to essentially be fluent in multiple
languages: human verbal and non-verbal communication, horse non-verbal communication as interpreted by humans, and intra-species communication
(how horses communicate with each other). Many
horses become remarkably talented in all three types
of communication but others really struggle and are
often labeled as bad, stupid or stubborn.
During the processing portion following the exercise,
the participants were asked several questions. One
woman asked how come I didn’t talk to the horse.
The first answer which came to my mind was “because horses don’t talk to each other”. Sure they occasionally whinny or nicker to another horse but the
vast majority of their communication is done nonverbally. I didn’t verbalize to my horse during the
exercise because I didn’t feel it would be a meaningful or effective way to communicate my intentions.
What am I really saying?
Later in the day, the miniature horses were replaced
by full-size horses and a new group of people volunteered as participants. In this task participants were
to work in groups to get a horse to go over an obstacle placed in the center of the arena. For this activity
I was in the observer role. The group of participants
worked for several minutes but were unable to get a
horse to go anywhere near the obstacle. After many
failed attempts, two of the participants picked large
handfuls of grass from outside the arena and used it
to entice a horse to go over the obstacle. With grass
in hand, the team succeeded in getting two horses
(one right after the other) over the obstacle.
The woman’s question caused me to think further
about how we communicate with our equine partners. A variety of clinicians have recently popularized the idea of utilizing body language to communi-
Having observed this, one might think the grass enticement was a success in that the horses went over
the jump to receive a reward (the grass). However, what no one seemed to notice is that the horses
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May 18, 2012
Page 5
promptly returned to the corner they had come from
making absolutely no attempt to eat the grass the participants had supposedly enticed them with. Could it
be the grass was not a bribe for the horses so much as
it was a crutch for the participants?
When the participants picked the grass their attitude
about the task changed. They went from feeling they
had little chance of success to believing they had a
great chance at success since they “knew” a horse
would work for a treat. In the end, the horses were
more interested in returning to their corner than in
accepting the treat. So, what were they responding
to? I believe the horses responded to the change in
energy of the participants.
At the start of the task, the participants were told they
could not touch the horses or speak to them. There
was an opportunity
for the group to plan
before silence was
initiated. During the
planning time there
were many comments
about how difficult or
impossible it would be
to move a horse over
an obstacle with these
limitations. The group
approached the horses
“knowing” they couldn’t succeed. They did not exude the positive, confident energy of good leaders
and the horses could sense the discomfort.
When the grass was added to the mix, the group was
confident they would succeed. In effect they became
better herd leaders as they now carried a positive,
confident energy with them. The horses responded to
the shift in energy, and the increased confidence the
participants expressed in their ability to accomplish
the task, not the expectation of receiving a handful
of grass.
Horse Communication and EAP Practice
It is this deeper and seldom understood communication style which makes the horse such a valuable
part of the therapeutic team. Humans have learned
eapREPORT
to ignore most non-verbal messages we receive. The
intuition which came naturally to our ancestors thousands of years ago is now considered a special gift
by some and systematically dismissed as little more
than a parlor trick by others. Our society has taught
us to ignore our intuition and those subtle “gut feelings” and rely upon verbal cues which can easily be
manipulated. Vocal dishonesty can be easy to hide
but you can’t hide your true feelings and intentions
from an animal whose survival depends on their ability to sense danger in any form. Our horses are far
more advanced in communication than we are in that
they understand the non-verbal cues of emotion and
energy never lie.
The horse sees what is on the outside of a person
and feels what is on the inside which makes them
very successful in facilitating the production of metaphors in therapy as
their response is genuine to what the person
is really feeling vs.
what they are portraying. The client is often unaware of these
feelings but they cannot be hidden from the
horse. I once worked
with a client whom I’ll
call Wendy. At the beginning of one session, Wendy was asked to go and
put a halter (the word “halter” was not used) on the
horse of her choice. Wendy somewhat reluctantly
took the halter from my co-facilitator and looked at
it with some trepidation. Wendy went toward Molly,
a horse that is normally very personable and easy to
catch. However, on this day Molly constantly moved
away from Wendy each time she moved toward her
with the halter.
After spending nearly half of the session with Wendy
advancing toward Molly and the horse moving away
from her, Wendy was invited to check in with the facilitation team. She was asked about her experience.
Wendy didn’t know what the halter was or exactly
what it was for. She suspected it went on the horse’s
head and she believed it was used to restrain or re-
May 18, 2012
Page 6
strict the horse in some manner.
Through the processing Wendy labeled the halter
with many negative metaphors saying it was restrictive, could hurt the horse, and could choke or otherwise cause harm and/or discomfort to the horse. It
was clear the halter was no longer a simple piece of
rope but had become a powerful metaphor leading
to significant self-discovery for Wendy. After some
contemplation, Wendy called the halter her voice.
She didn’t just mean the physical production of voice
but the power of her words and their effect on others.
She felt her words could be harmful and restrictive
– so much so she was afraid to say anything at all in
certain situations.
This was a powerful session for Wendy as she realized how she felt about her words and how she
feared saying the wrong thing and hurting someone
she cared about. As she approached Molly, the halter
was laced with her fear of unintentionally inflicting
harm. To the observer, Wendy was doing everything
right in approaching the horse. She was calm, moved
slowly and deliberately and approached Molly with
respect. However, the information we learned from
the processing tells us the message she was sending was one of fear, discomfort and distrust in her
ability to not cause harm. The horse was extremely
aware of the emotions coming from Wendy and as a
result had no intention of allowing this person close
enough to touch her.
Once Wendy processed the halter as a metaphor for
her voice and all the potential harm her words could
cause, she gave the halter to me – metaphorically reproducing her usual behavior: giving up her voice as
it was something she feared. The session was near-
ing an end so we gave Wendy the opportunity to go
and say goodbye to Molly and the other horses. With
no halter in hand, Wendy walked toward Molly who
turned and met her half way. The woman and the
horse stood together in the pasture in total comfort
with one another. A gentle, warm breeze blew across
the open fields and I could feel the shift in the energy
as the two beings stood in peaceful congruency with
the inside of each accurately and honestly reflected
on the outside.
About the Author:
Cheryl holds a Master’s degree in social work from
Western Michigan University focusing on program
planning, development, implementation and evaluation. Cheryl works as a consultant in her EAGALA
business, Path of the Peace Horse, where she helps
other equine assisted therapy programs build effective, evidence-based programming as well as helping
the business acquire funding through grant writing
and program evaluations.
Please visit www.peacehorse.net to learn more.
Cheryl worked in the horse industry for over a decade and has nearly 25 years of horse experience
specializing in equine communication and behavior
with a special sensitivity for the "difficult" horse.
As a trainer, Cheryl supports a natural and respectful approach, listening to what the horse needs rather
than forcing her will upon it. She does not use gadgets (aka "training aids"), special equipment or other
"quick fixes" on her horses. If you are interested in
building a relationship with your horse, please visit
Cheryl's horse professional website at:
www.cherylleigheriksen.webs.com
Special Thanks to Cheryl Eriksen for her article submissions.
We are constantly looking for articles, experiences, questions, or anything that might be
of interest to our readers. If you feel you have something that others could benefit from
please share it with us.
Send to: [email protected]
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May 18, 2012
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Saddle Up
MAY 17-19
EAGALA Training Part 1
(Westerville, OH)
MAY 17-19
EAGALA Training Part 2 (Spokane, WA)
MAY 17-19
OK CORRAL Crisis to Confidence; Turn
ing Bad into OK (Franksville, WI)
MAY 17-19
PATH INTL. Registered Workshop
(Monroeville, NJ)
MAY 18-20
NATURAL LIFE. Training for the Mental Health Field (Liberty Hill, TX)
MAY 20-21
PATH INTL. Mentor Training
(Franklin, TN)
MAY 22-25
PATH INTL. Registered Instructor OSWC
(Franklin, TN)
MAY 23-26
PATH INTL. ESMHL (Phoenix, AZ)
MAY 24-26
OK CORRAL Private Seminar (Lune, NV)
MAY 25-28
PATH INTL. Registered Instructor OSWC
(Hampton, GA)
MAY 28-30
EAGALA Training Part 1 (Girona, Spain)
MAY 29-31
PATH INTL. Advanced Instructor Certifica-
tion (Old Lyme, CT)
MAY 30- JUNE 2
PATH INTL. Registered Instructor OSWC
(Hockley, TX)
MAY 31- JUNE 2
EAGALA Training Advanced
(Red Lion, PA)
MAY 31- JUNE 2
EAGALA Training Part 2 (Girona, Spain)
MAY 31- JUNE 3
PATH INTL. Registered Instructor OSWC
(Oregon, WI)
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May 18, 2012
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