Preliminary Efficacy of Occupational Therapy in an Equine Environment for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Peters et al. (2022) tested a new program called OTee HORSPLAY. Kids with autism got occupational therapy while riding and caring for horses.

A second group did the same therapy games in a garden instead of a barn. Both groups met for the same number of sessions.

The team then compared which group made bigger gains in social skills, goal progress, and irritability.

The horse group won. Parents and therapists saw clearer gains in social motivation and fewer meltdowns.

Goal sheets also showed faster progress for the horse kids than the garden kids.

Badia et al. (2016) ran a similar RCT six years earlier. They also found better social skills after horse activities, but they used a wait-list control instead of an active garden group.

Dudley et al. (2019) swapped horses for dogs. Even a ten-minute visit with a therapy dog boosted talking and eye contact in hospitalized kids. The animal, not the setting, seems to drive the social spark.

Tiede et al. (2019) pooled 27 studies of naturalistic play therapy. Their meta-analysis shows small-to-medium gains in social engagement for preschoolers. Caitlin’s work extends those gains to school-age kids and adds real horses to the play menu.

You now have an RCT showing horses beat a non-animal outdoor setting. If parents ask for options beyond clinic rooms, you can suggest a local therapeutic-riding center and write OT goals that target social motivation and irritability. Start with a baseline week, then track smiles, initiations, and tantrums each ride to see if the barn gives you the same lift Caitlin found.