The Behavioral Cost of Care: Changes in Maintenance Behavior during Equine-Assisted Interventions.

Simple Summary: Psychotherapy, learning, and other interventions incorporating animals are on the rise. Researchers are interested in outcomes for human recipients and intervention animals. This study addressed the welfare of intervention animals by observing maintenance behaviors, which are daily activities that animals emit for survival (e.g., eating, moving, and sleeping). The researchers scanned the pasture before, during, and after equine-assisted (psychosocial) learning sessions, recording horses' alertness, eating, and movement, which differed. The researchers also measured human–horse interaction, recording when humans approached the horses or the horses approached humans during equine-assisted learning sessions. These interactions were mostly from humans toward horses. Humans initiated and reciprocated interactions with horses, while horses mostly ignored or avoided interactions with humans. Applying a symbiosis framework to examine the costs and benefits of equine-assisted intervention, these findings on maintenance behavior suggest a potential cost for the animals—an interruption of or alteration in their maintenance behavior. This study examined human–animal symbiosis in an animal-assisted intervention through observations of animal maintenance behaviors. The rise of psychotherapy, learning, and recreation incorporating animals warrants exploration of the welfare of the animals involved in these interventions. The analysis of welfare in multispecies engagements can be discussed in terms of symbiosis. Regarding an intervention's animal provider (e.g., therapy horse) and human recipient (psychotherapy client), the balance of cost and benefit is important. Research describing human and animal interactive behavior during interventions is limited, whether focusing on client outcomes or animal welfare. The present study adapted ethological methods to study humans and animals in an equine-assisted intervention, observing equine maintenance behaviors and equid–human interactive behavior. Maintenance behaviors were recorded before, during, and after equine-assisted (psychosocial) learning sessions with youth, providing 1600 observations. Equine alertness, eating behavior, and ambulation varied significantly before, during, and after the equine-assisted sessions. Such interruptions of typical behavior are an important aspect of welfare and unit of analysis when examining symbiotic relationships. A total of 267 sequences of equid–human approach–response behavior were also recorded, indicating that human–animal interaction was predominantly from humans toward equids. Equids' dominant response to human approach was no response, followed by avoidance, while humans' dominant response to equid approach was reciprocation. The findings are discussed in terms of symbiosis and animal welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]