Horse welfare in therapeutic sessions for children with autism: monitoring and assessment

Little data is available on the amount of stress experienced by horses during therapeutic riding sessions. Horses are easily submitted to work stressors related to physical constraints and/or ‘‘psychological’’ conflicts, such as controversial orders from the riders or the requirement to suppress emotions. Children with autism are characterized by inappropriate behaviours and poor social skills; subsequently, it has been hypothesized that in therapeutic sessions horses might be forced to suppress emotional reactions, a condition which could be considered a work stressor. This multicentre research was specifically aimed at building a tool to evaluate such stress by means of combining physiological and behavioural measurements to evaluate animal stress levels during different activities performed. More importantly, a non-invasive technique, Infrared Thermography, was tested; its promising role in monitoring different conditions of stress without interfering with the therapeutic setting or the spontaneous expression of the animal’s behaviour has been explored. An additional value of this research is the possibility of developing a database of integrated behavioural and physiological measures or «stress-response profiles» for horses, which could be further used as a reference for other situations in which animal welfare might be at risk (such as transport, fairs, riding situations etc.). Furthermore, the opportunity to apply infrared thermography method to other AAI settings involving other mammals could also be considered. The research is on going; results and conclusions will become available in July 2016. The Italian Ministry of Health funded the research.