March 31, 2011
Equine Therapy Research a New Love for Psychology Student
Allie Davidson says she “never understood how learning about stupid algebra in high school” was ever going to get her anywhere.
When she didn’t get the grades the get into university, she considered taking a year off. Instead she enrolled in Carleton’s enriched support program, and is now finishing up an honours degree in psychology, for which she’s researching equine-assisted development for kids with autism.
“I know this sounds really cliché,” she says, “but now is the first time I’ve really enjoyed learning. I really love what I’m doing, because it speaks so personally to me.”
Davidson has been riding horses since she was eight, and volunteered with autistic kids throughout high school. “It’s kind of like my two worlds coming together,” she says.
Davidson already had an honours thesis topic set out when one of her professors asked for a student to help her research human-animal interactions and autism. “When she said she was particularly interested in horses, I went ‘oh! that’s music to my ears!’ and signed up right away,” says Davidson.
Davidson spent part of her summer videotaping riding lessons at a farm that was running a program for autistic kids. Now, working with a graduate student mentor, she’s helping to develop a framework to analyze the findings.
I really love what I’m doing, because it speaks so personally to me
They’ll look for specific behaviours exhibited by the kids while they’re with the horses and compare them to their behaviours in other settings.
When she stepped out of the riding ring to do her research, Davidson says she gained a new perspective.
“I remember looking at some of the horses and kind of understanding the side of the horse in many situations, and then seeing the reactions of the kids, things that, had I been in the thick of it, I wouldn’t have noticed,” she says.
The results aren’t in yet, but Davidson says she hopes they back up her instincts. “I am really hoping that there is some sort of an interaction between the kids with autism and the horses,” she says, “I personally feel that horses have a lot more to offer than just a ride, and think that there’s a lot of social interactions that horses give that people don’t even realize. Horses can be a reflection of yourself in some ways, they give a lot of really interesting feedback.”
Her fortuitous research experience has Davidson excited to pursue a career in developmental psychology. She’s hoping to take her findings to a conference in B.C. next year, and her eyes light up when she talks about continuing to work with horses.
“I’ve learned how to learn,” she says, “now that I know how to take things that are interesting to me, I’m not going to sit there in class and hate everything. I think that I really lucked out.”
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