ArticleAnthropology & medicine2018
'It just opens up their world': autism, empathy, and the therapeutic effects of equine interactions.
Article in Anthropology & medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Exploring the Human-Animal Interaction (HAI) for Children with ASD Across Countries: A Systematic Review.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Perceived Benefits and Barriers for Autistic Adults Accessing Therapeutic Horse Riding for Mental Health.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Data roles: youth mental health outcome measures and the young people who defy them.BioSocieties · 2026Article
- Parents' Perspectives on the Benefits of Animal-Assisted Intervention: A Systematic Review.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Donkey-assisted therapy in mental health conditions: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Potential Mechanisms of Action and Outcomes of Equine-Assisted Services for Veterans with a History of Trauma: A Narrative Review of the Literature.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Review
- Animal-Assisted Interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review of the Literature from 2016 to 2020.Review journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2023Article
- Dogs at school: a quantitative analysis of parental perceptions of canine-assisted activities in schools mediated by child anxiety score and use case.International journal of child care and education policy · 2022Article
- Measurement of Horse Allergens Equ c 1 and Equ c 2: A Comparison among Breeds.International archives of allergy and immunology · 2022Article
- The Perceived Impact of The First UK COVID-19 Lockdown on Companion Animal Welfare and Behaviour: A Mixed-Method Study of Associations with Owner Mental Health.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Equine-assisted therapies using horses as healers: A concept analysis.Nursing open · 2020Article
- Empathy in Autism Spectrum Disorder.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2019Article
- Introduction: Human Animal Health in Medical Anthropology.Medical anthropology quarterly · 2019Article
- Enactivism in Autism Healthcare Practices: A Scoping Review.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingArticle
- Equine-Assisted Activities and Therapies for Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Current State, Challenges and Future Directions.Chronic stress (Thousand Oaks, Calif.)Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Experiences of autism-spectrum disorder are now increasingly studied by social scientists. Human-animal relations have also become a major focus of social inquiry in recent years. Examining horse-assisted therapy for autistic spectrum disorders, this is the first paper that brings these fields together. Drawing on participant observation and interviews at a UK horse therapy Centre, this article examines how staff and the parents of riders account for the successes and limitations of equine therapy. To the respondents, horses 'open up' autistic children and make possible interactions that seemed impossible before. Horses were regarded as facilitating the emergence of apparently social behaviours, which included eye contact, pointing, and speech. Three key explanations emerged for therapeutic success: the sensorial, embodied experience of riding the horse; the specific movements and rhythms of the horse; and, the 'personality' of the horse. Equine therapy can be regarded as enabling a form of multispecies intersubjectivity, with the resonance between rider and horse seeming to make possible a new attunement between humans. Practices of equine therapy, and perceptions of its efficacy, serve in turn to attune social scientists to a version of empathy constituted through lively and sensorial interactions, as opposed to one that is restricted to particular kinds of humans.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.