2018 took place on Lichtblickhof A larger research project took place: In cooperation with the University of Vienna, the Comparative Medicine Department of the Messerli Research Institute of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna and the Siegmund Freud University, Anna Naber, MSc. as part of her master's thesis with the health-promoting aspects of horse-assisted therapy. The title is: "They feel your heartbeat! Heart rate, heart rate variability and cortisol release as indicators of synchronization in horse-assisted therapy"
“As part of the research project, we looked at the stress-reducing effect of horses and measured the heartbeat and heart rate variability (HRV) as well as the cortisol in the saliva of the therapist, the client and the therapy horse.
We also wanted to look at the synchronization between the three interaction partners. Is there a synchronization in the physiological parameters? Studies in mother-infant interaction research have already demonstrated the effect of coordinated heartbeats. But in the equine therapy setting, do hearts beat in the same rhythm?
It was an intensive data collection period with an ingenious research team and super hard-working study participants who didn't let sub-zero temperatures, unpredictable technical challenges and hours to days of almost XNUMX/XNUMX work get you down. On the contrary! The motivation and enthusiasm to discover new secrets of horse therapy was enormous. And the effort paid off, as the evaluation of the results showed:
We were able to show that integrating horses into the therapeutic setting had a stress-reducing effect on clients. We measured cortisol, heart rate and HRV before and after the therapy session. And we also had a control condition in which there was no horse at all during the therapy session, just the wooden barrel horse. After horse contact (as opposed to before) and in the experimental condition with therapy horse (as opposed to barrel horse), cortisol and heart rate were lower and HRV increased. High values in HRV indicate a high level of well-being and low values in cortisol and heart rate indicate relaxation. Therapy horses therefore have a positive influence on the experience of stress and relaxation.
We also looked at the synchronization of the heartbeats and found that there is actually coordination between the therapy horse, client and therapist. The heartbeats adapt to each other and, interestingly, the adaptation is greater if there was already a relationship between the person and the horse and the therapy horse was not a stranger or unknown.
We have already been able to present the results at many conferences, for example in Dublin, Budapest, New York and Singen, and have met with great approval from the horse therapist community. Most people already know from their daily practice that horses have a positive effect on our well-being and help to reduce stress and experience relaxation. Most people also know that relationships are an essential factor in therapeutic settings. And yet it is important to advance research in this area so that the knowledge that parents, therapy children, therapists, experts, etc. experience in their daily work is also presented scientifically in order to achieve greater acceptance of horse-assisted therapy .
So we are VERY happy about the exchange on this and other research projects and would like to encourage everyone to get something going themselves!
The publications on our research project can be found here:
Naber et al., 2025, Heart rate and cortisol as indicators of arousal & synchrony in EAT
PDF Naber et al, 2019, Conference Paper
PDF Naber et al., 2019, poster