ArticleAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI2024
A Relaxed Horse-A Relaxed Client? An Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Therapy Horses' Stress on Clients' Stress, Mood, and Anxiety.
Article in Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Equine-assisted coaching in formerly incarcerated men with histories of substance abuse: a 12-week exploratory study of anger regulation, quality of life, human-horse synchrony, and equine behavior.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Enhancing equine welfare: a qualitative study on the impact of RAiSE (Recognizing Affective States in Equine) as an educational tool.Translational animal science · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Equine-assisted therapies are becoming increasingly popular for addressing physical and psychological disabilities in clients. The role of the horse's welfare in equine-assisted service receives increasing attention in research. Several studies have shown that horses are able to perceive human emotions and respond to human stress responses. However, no research has yet looked at the other side of the coin-whether and how humans perceive and react to equine stress levels during equine-assisted services. To fill this gap in the research, we employed a within-subjects design, in which horse-naïve participants had a standardized interaction with both an experimentally stressed horse and an experimentally relaxed horse. We assessed physiological indicators of stress (heart rate, heart rate variability, and salivary cortisol) in participants and horses, as well as psychological indicators of stress (state anxiety and positive and negative affect) in participants. Although our stress and relaxation manipulations were successful (indicated by horses' physiological indicators of stress), we did not find any difference in the participants' physiological or psychological indicators of stress between the interaction with a stressed and the interaction with a relaxed horse. Together with results from previous studies, this suggests that humans cannot intuitively recognize the (physiological) stress level of horses, which has important implications for effective communication and bonding between humans and horses and for the safety of equine activities.
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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.