**3. The EAI under study**

This intervention is offered by a charity which operates in the South of England and is referred over 160 people every year by a variety of referrers such as Schools & Pupil Referral Units, Children's Social Services, NHS Mental Health Services, Troubled Families Local Authority Services, Offender Services and other specialist agencies such as charities working with Domestic Violence or Drug and Alcohol Services. The people referred are currently living with 2–4 issues from the list below and they are referred because they are disengaged from talk-based support.


The intervention uses the principles of the Parelli Natural Horsemanship program as its philosophical underpinning and structure [41]. This approach is based on developing calmness, and partnership skills through learning natural horsemanship skills. At this introductory level this involves 'playing' with specially trained horses inviting them to respond to requests with the young person on the ground and the horse on a loose rope or at liberty. The learning is facilitated by a specialist facilitator and the students are taught how to play the seven 'games' with the horse. The course takes place in an indoor arena over 10 hours in five, two hour sessions.

The games taught are:


In order to be effective, the human needs to use clear, phased assertive communication and control their body language and energy in an assertive, nonaggressive way.

#### **4. Equine husbandry, selection, training and handling**

All the horses who engage in these courses are kept outside in a natural environment (hedges, trees other horses) in friendship groups with access to shelter if they want it. The workload for each horse is logged and kept light in line with the charities welfare policy. All horse training, handling and husbandry uses natural horsemanship methods and underpinning philosophies and is informed by the charities welfare policy. The horses taking part in this intervention are trained to Parelli level 3 or above by the course facilitators (who are Parelli trained, and trained by the charity to provide this intervention specifically). In addition, rescue horses are retrained using natural horsemanship methods and then take part in the intervention and are then rehomed as appropriate through the registered rescue charity in partnership with the charity providing this intervention.

*The Embodied Nature of Horse Human Communication: A Feasibility Study of an Equine… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98848*
