Interacting with horses and children is congruent.  Each need nurturance, love, and guidance to successfully participate in society. With both learning is maximized in being with a relational connection with a significant other. Young horses learn to bond with their significant other. An environment of healthy trust and attachment occurs without complex human requirements of judgments, expectations, or prejudice. 

With regard to children, adolescents, or adults this trust and attachment establishes a healthy sense of identity and empowers innate strengths and an identity of self. Horses aid in helping one to understand and grasp such tenets as loyalty, love, nurturance, respect for others, understanding one’s  own emotions and behaviors, as well as overcoming the anxiety that stems from traditional modalities of therapy. With the horse as the therapeutic partner, safety and freedom arise around therapeutic dialogues.

Horses can feel manipulation and fear and view these emotions as dangerous, for they queue into our emotions. If a person suggests fear, for instance, then they wish to acknowledge this for there may be something fearful out there for them. In contrast, when horses feel love and nurturance they resonate with nonverbal communication.  Hence, horses can teach one to love, nurture, and care for another. They have been said to mirror the emotions of humans. I think they surpass mirroring and, instead, instruct. 

We become engaged in conversations with each other…how we feel and think, and how that is resonated in relationships. Can one talk of love, pain, loss, or joy if we are afraid?