By Michael Hill
Correspondent
“I was terrified of them initially,” said Rutgers Medical School psychiatry major Ralph Fader.
Fader never considered his Rutgers Medical School education and training to become a psychiatrist would include a date with a mare named Syriana and her sidekicks.
“I think once I was reassured they weren’t going to kick me I became much more comfortable. Hopefully patients don’t do that as well,” he said.
Twice a year, a dozen Rutgers Medical School students take a trip to Hillsborough’s Spring Reins of Hope/Growth to woo the horses to develop a rapport with them, the same way they would have to warm up to patients. They must relax, give a horse their attention, make eye contact to establish trust and emotional connection so the horse will cooperate in several exercises. The program is called Horses for Healers.
What’s so important about this program is that it teaches young aspiring medical professionals how to really interact with their patients and those who organize this say that lesson is invaluable.
“Animals, as large as horses may be, are quite sensitive to their environment. As prey animals they need to be very alert of their environment for their own survival. So being that they’re wired that way they’re almost like bio feedback machines. They give us instant feedback on our own non-verbal language, our body language,” said Dr. Maria Katsamanis, clinical assistant professor at Rutgers Medical School.
Dr. Katsamanis says it’s a perfect opportunity to improve bedside manner. She founded and introduced this workshop to Rutgers because she says it’s had great success in other schools. Katsamanis and Spring Reins founder Christianna Capra have offered the program for free for three years and now are aiming for funding and to expand to Columbia University, NYU and to continuing education programs for the health care industry.
Capra says horses are an honest barometer of body language and if someone doesn’t connect right away, he or she can try it again in a few minutes.
“They live in the moment only. So five minutes later you might take what your reaction was and learn from that and change it in some way and the same horse will give you a completely different reaction. So, it’s just a great way to gauge the honesty of how safe you feel to them,” Capra said.
When Rutgers announces it’s offering this elective each semester, it gets attention and fills up quickly.
“Students do enjoy learning through non-classwork, non-Power Point modalities. So the fact that it fills quickly is not surprising to me,” said Dr. Anthony Tobia, associate professor at Rutgers Medical School.
When asked if the class is beneficial, psychiatry major Dereck Rudge said, “Absolutely.”
Rudge actually put bandages on one horse and checked its heart beat. His takeaway from the experience?
“You need to constantly be aware of how you’re presenting yourself, specifically non-verbally,” he said.
When asked what he learned about himself, Fader said, “I learned that I’m very neurotic. But I also learned that when you’re paying attention to the way other people and other things are reacting to you, you have a greater control over yourself and the way that you present yourself. The way that you act around people. The way that you talk to them. It was really helpful to gain that kind of insight in working with these horses.”
Straight from the humans’ mouths and reviews is that consensus and that Horses for Healers should be a requirement for health practitioners.