The paper works with queer and feminist post-human materialist scholarship to understand the way young teen valleys' girls experienced ubiquitous feelings of fear, risk, vulnerability and violence. Longitudinal ethnographic research of girls (aged 12-15) living in an ex-mining semi-rural community suggests how girls are negotiating complex…

Providing healing support for everyone from an autistic child to a wounded veteran is just the latest addition to the horse's 5,000-year-old résumé. No animal has played a greater role in human history. Horses have carried us into war, pulled our loads, plowed our fields, and transported us over all kinds of terrain. Freed of such drudgery by…

Quality of life assessments were used in this study to determine the behavioral changes of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who participated in equine assisted activities. Behavioral changes of children with ASD participating in 9 weeks of equines assisted activities (EAA) (N = 10) were compared to behavioral changes of…

Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were used to examine the influence of riding on the identity construction of people with disabilities. The 15 participants, three men and 12 women, were between 15 and 65 years old and have various physical disabilities. The data analysis derives from identity theory, a social-psychological theory that…

Learning takes place both inside and outside of the classroom. While there are a few studies that focus on the professional, developmental, and learning outcomes of participation in student organizations, there has been insufficient research on these outcomes in sport clubs. The paper reports on the results of an online, primarily qualitative…

This paper presents a summary of preliminary findings regarding the perceptions of the legitimacy and quality of the higher education (HE) student experience through the lens of those studying animal/equine studies foundation degrees and BSc degrees within a small, ostensibly further education (FE) land-based college setting. As part of a PhD…

This study investigated the association between therapeutic riding (TR) and the social communication and sensory processing skills of 21 elementary students with autism attending TR as part of a school group. An interrupted treatment design was employed to determine whether children were able to maintain treatment effects following the removal of…

To explore the efficacy of equine programming to support positive behavioral development of horse-novice youth, researchers examined trajectories of behavioral change of 5-8th grade students as they participate in an equine facilitated learning program. Behaviors were rated and analyzed to examine group trajectories of change. Results indicated…

The current study experimentally evaluated the effects of therapeutic horseback riding on the behavior of children with autism using a multiple baseline across participants design and a waitlist control group for comparison purposes. Participants were observed weekly in an after-school program during four center-based activities and during…

Language comprehension is a complex process in which multiple, including semantic and syntactic, representations of the material are constructed as the input unfolds. Sometimes more than one way to interpret a sentence or sequence of sentences is possible and reliable sources of information may mislead us into developing an ultimately incorrect…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of cardiorespiratory and pelvic kinematic responses to simulated horseback riding (SHBR) and to characterize responses to SHBR relative to walking in apparently healthy children. Method: Fifteen healthy children (Mage = 9.5 ± 2.6 years) completed SHBR on a commercially available…

This preliminary study examined the effects of 10 weekly lessons of therapeutic horseback riding (THR) on 42 participants diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ages 6-16 years) compared to a subset (n=16) of the total study population who were first evaluated before and after a 10-week waitlist control condition. All participants received…

In view of supporting the study of the complex domain of equine obstetrics, a Foal"in"Mare multimedia package with 3D designs has been developed. The present study centers on questions as to the most optimal implementation of the multimedia package in veterinary education. In a pretest-posttest cross-over design, students were randomly assigned to…

The effectiveness of grief counseling may be enhanced through the utilization of equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP). An experiential, solution-focused, and natural approach, EAP provides clients with the opportunity to discover solutions to challenges that exist within themselves. Counselors and equine specialists team with horses to provide a…

Sex segregation is a core organising principle of most modern sports and is a key element in the marginalisation and subordination of girls and women in sport and beyond. In this article I explore the only Olympic-level sport which is not organised around sex segregation--equestrian sport--in order to consider the implications of sex integration…