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Horses do not experience stress during interactions with veterans with therapy-resistant PTSD. Researcher Chantal Kapteijn has published the results of research she is conducting with colleagues on horse behaviour, heart rate and heart rate variability in the journal Animal Behaviour and Welfare Cases.

The research is part of the Horsepower project. In this project, groups of veterans with therapy-resistant PTSD go through a 12-week course, during which they are put in contact with horses under supervision. Researchers from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine study the effect of the interactions on the veterans, as well as how the horses' welfare is affected. For the veterans, they use questionnaires and measure physiological parameters. For the horses, they involve physiological parameters and also study animal behaviour.

‘In the free interaction, where the veterans stroke the horses, for example, you don't see any difference in heart rate variability when you compare it to a normal situation,’ Kapteijn said. "Also, there are no big differences over the weeks. Only in the first week, there was a deviation, so that seems to indicate that the horses have to adjust to the new situation for a while during the first week."

In the focused interactions, where the veterans ride the horses, for example, there were large differences in heart rate with both baseline and free interactions, though. "That is explainable because in those interactions the horses show much more physical activity. You can therefore see that the differences within the targeted interaction between the weeks are very large. The heart rate is higher and heart rate variability lower in the weeks of riding or lunging."

The behavioural parameters were measured only during free interaction. "These do not change over the weeks. We see that the horses spend most of the time in the presence of the veterans, receive positive social contact from them and stand with their ears forward. These are all indicators that the horses do not find petting annoying, after all, they can also walk away from the veterans as they are loose in the circle."

In the coming time, Chantal and the Horsepower team will analyse all the remaining data, and publish the results. Meanwhile, funds are being raised for Horsepower 2.0, which includes family members of veterans with therapy-resistant PTSD.