History of the Field
All of us begin our search for understanding the field of EAP/EAL trying to grasp not only what it is exactly, but also how WE could DO it.
Perhaps reviewing the historical origins of the different organizations will help you find your ‘fit.’ My history in the field actively began in 1998 when I went online to search for equine assisted psychotherapy and found two hits [today there are over thirty pages]. One hit was for Equine Services, the training organization Greg Kersten owned that became EAGALA and is now OK CORRAL SERIES.
The second one was a NARHA (now PATH, Intl) based link which eventually led to Boo McDaniels’ (now Martin) Horses and Healing conference which became EFMHA.
Reference:
The Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA)
The North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA)
The Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association (EFMHA)
Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH, INT.)
Thus, I began my search.
~Pam Salem
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We hope this aids your own journey.
Equine Assisted Learning and Psychotherapy is a technique that “…honors and integrates natural horse and herd behavior as a model for human mental and emotional health…”
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(Greg Kersten, Founder EAGALA and EAL/EAP…OK CORRAL SERIES)
Decades before terms like “experiential education” or “equine-facilitated learning” or “equine assisted psychotherapy” were even created, Marj Kittredge knew horses and the outdoors could help. Inspired by her involvement with Outward Bound, Marj knew that the combination of horses and nature could help to strengthen the bodies, sharpen the minds and heal the souls of children and adults afflicted with physical, emotional and intellectual disabilities. In 1964, with three horses and five emotionally challenged/learning disabled students, Marj partnered with The Gifford School for Emotionally Disturbed Children to begin what became Windrush Farm Therapeutic Equitation, Inc.
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While Lis Hartel, an award-winning dressage rider from Denmark, is generally regarded as the impetus for the
development of therapeutic riding in Europe, other influences occurred in the USA.
When research from Europe focused on the medical model and the successful results for people with physical
disabilities, this became the focus of NARHA because it had a medical research basis.
It also provided an emotional ‘feel good’ marketing aspect of happy children astride horses that the
confidentiality of mental health work could not ethically provide. It legitimately provided wonderful results so
it grew. The physical more than the mental/emotional aspects became the main focus.
People understood riding horses but not always the educational and emotional benefits that being with them
could provide.
The field began to return again to the emotional/mental health aspects of being with horses with the work of Barbara Rector who co-founded EFMHA, the Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association, with co-founder, Isabella ‘Boo’ McDaniel Martin of Pony Farm at Touchstone Farm in Temple, NH, as a subcommittee under the NARHA (now PATH) umbrella. EFMHA was brought to section status under NARHA in 1996. EFMHA coined the term ‘facilitated’ for the emerging work.
Boo wrote this article for STRIDES magazine in 1998. (In 2026 Boo Martin operates Stepping Stones Farm and Retreat Center in Temple, NH. Boo serves as the current Membership Chair for E3A, the Equine Experiential Education Association: see listed under Memberships & Trainings.)
As EFMHA was establishing its structure and philosophy, Greg Kersten was watching how horses were changing the lives of the young parolees he took to work with them. He began to develop an educational model that addressed equine assisted mental/emotional health through a series of signature exercises which gave people a structured way to approach the partnering of people with horses. Kersten coined the term ‘assisted’ to describe the process of working with horses in mental health and educational sessions, first with parolees, then with at risk youth in a residential setting.
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Greg was given more freedom to implement his ideas when he moved to work at a residential treatment center in Colorado in the early 1990s. It was here that he conducted the first EAP certification seminar through his company Equine Services, Inc. In July 1999 he created a nonprofit branch to Equine Services, Inc., the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA), where he served as President, CEO and Chairman of the Board until 2005.
From these two foundational approaches, which hearkened back to Marj’s Outward Bound model of horses and nature, sprang the rich resources available to our field today as it navigates between medical and educational models.​​​​
Whatever training you choose or whatever model you follow, you can adapt it to your own experience and your own style. As Bruce Wilkinson writes in The Dream Giver: “You are the only person exactly like you in the Universe. No one else can do your dream.” Only you have the experience that is exactly the right match for the work you are to do.
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So, indeed, “you are your own best asset~!”™ You can have absolute confidence in that and still be open to learning a variety of approaches to equine assisted work while meeting the necessary standards. Where there is a nudge, there is a need.
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Click below to explore the membership and training organizations
in rough chronological order:
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