By Ray Paulick
I’m not sure if it was Will Rogers, Winston Churchill or Ronald Reagan who originated the wonderful phrase that “there’s something about the outside of a horse that’s good for the inside of a man.” But you can be assured it didn’t come from anyone in the health insurance industry.

For centuries, going to back to ancient times when wounded warriors were put on horseback to rehabilitate their injuries, horses have been an effective therapeutic partner to humans in need of help in dealing with physical, mental, emotional, social, behavioral and occupational challenges. You’ve probably seen or read the occasional news stories about how some type of equine-assisted activity has brought joy to a child who has suffered with a debilitating disease or handicap. Also, for many years, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation has partnered retired racehorses with hardened criminals to help in the prisoners’ rehabilitation.

There are literally thousands of horses involved in various programs, most of them non-profit, designed to help children and adults overcome some incredibly challenging hurdles in life. The benefits are unmistakable to the people who have witnessed the interaction of horses and humans, yet the medical community and health insurance companies are unconvinced.

Medical insurance companies will pay for a physical therapist to put a child with Cerebral Palsy on a ball, and roll it back and forth, or side to side, in an effort to help his or her postural control. Put that same child, working with a therapist, on a horse, which provides unique, three-dimensional movement, the kind research has shown can be far superior therapy for that child, and the insurance companies won’t pay.

“If you take a child out of a wheelchair and put them on a horse, they come alive, they love every minute of it, and the whole world looks different,” says KC Henry, executive director of the Horses & Humans Research Foundation. “There is the warmth of the animal, the challenge of the environment, and it’s highly motivation. The horse has a three-dimensional movement that challenges every part of their body strength and upper-body movement. The motion of a horse replicates the ambulation of the human body when we’re walking. Someone sitting passively on a horse is getting really positive therapeutic input just through the ambulation of a horse.”

Still, Henry said, there are skeptics. “Some might ask, ‘Is this just a pony ride? Where’s your proof?’ They want evidence-based outcomes.”

Horses & Humans Research Foundation was created in 2002 with the purpose of funding scientific research exploring the various equine-assisted activities and therapies with the hope that the anecdotal or unsubstantiated benefits of partnering horses and humans will be proven by evidence-based research. This type of research, published in peer-reviewed scientific or medical journals, will go a along way toward legitimizing equine-assisted therapies in the eyes of the medical and insurance worlds. The research could also help convince foundations to support the many worthy therapeutic equine programs that now struggle financially.

I learned of this non-profit, 501(c)3 organization when it recently held a meeting of its board of directors and a strategic planning session in Lexington, Ky. One of its board members is Jim Smith, a well-known and highly respected equine veterinarian long associated with Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington who now spends a good deal of time at equine-assisted therapy workshops.

Horses & Humans Research Foundation works hand and hand with associations like NARHA, the membership association that brings equine-assisted activities centers together under one umbrella. NARHA represents nearly 800 different centers that offer various therapies partnering horses and humans. Molly Sweeney, whose vision led to the organization’s creation, is a former NARHA board member who serves as president of Horses & Humans Research Foundation. Octavia Brown, also on the organization’s board, was a founding member of the NARHA board more than 40 years ago, and she is the recipient of NARHA James Brady Lifetime Achievement Award.

“We feel this is the best place anyone can send money for research,” said executive director Henry. “Unless the research is so good it will be published in a scientific journal, it’s not going to do what we need for our industry. We feel the research has to be really, really superior, so that it will be published in peer-reviewed journals.”
 
The organization puts calls out annually for proposals to researchers around the world. A group of scientific advisers reviews the proposals and determines what projects are rigorous, well-developed scientific research, then makes recommendations to the board, which has final approval. It is a very tough process. “We’ve had four calls for proposals, and twice we haven’t funded anything,” said Henry, who said the organization receives as many as 36 proposals in a year. “One year we did fund two separate projects. We’ve funded three so far—one has been published and the other two are in the process.”

Goals from the recent strategic planning process are for three to five grants to be funded per year. “We would have to do that by partnering with other organizations,” she said. “We’ve had two grants related to Cerebral Palsy, and would like to have organizations like the Celebral Palsy Association help fund future research.”

Another goal is to award more funds: right now, because of limited funding, it can only award $50,000 per project. “We hope these researchers will take that grant to the National Institute of Health and get much larger funding from there and do more advanced projects,” Henry said.

“So many people benefit from these riding programs,” she continued. “At-risk children with educational or behavioral problems, adults with Multiple Sclerosis: there are programs across the country addressing mental health, social, behavioral and any type of rehabilitation or therapy—physical, occupational or speech. But very seldom is it covered by insurance companies.”

That’s why the evidence-based research is so critical, and the only way the research can get done is through funding.

“This is not only going to impact the therapeutic riding industry,” she said. “When we finally see a story on the front page of the New York Times saying horses are good for people, it’s going to be good for the entire horse industry.”

For more information about the Horses & Humans Research Foundation or to learn how you can make a donation or get involved, please visit their web site by clicking here.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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Tags: Good News Friday, hagyard equine medical institute, Horses & Humans Research Foundation, James Brady, KC Henry, lexington, liberation farm, Molly Sweeney, NARHA, Octavia Brown, Ray Paulick, Ronald Reagan, Thoroughbred Retirement Foudnation, Will Rogers, Winston Churchill

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Good News Friday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.