University of Minnesota: Horse Sense Led to Unique Degree
By Jim McCartney
Originally published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press , June 3, 2002
Patti Brown believes more people need horse sense.
She believes it so strongly that earlier this month, she became the first University of Minnesota graduate to get a degree in equine-assisted therapy.
Brown created a program to study the ways in which interacting with horses can help heal children and adults with physical, mental and emotional problems. It's a hard field to define, but Winston Churchill came close when he said: "There's something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man."
She had a head start in her studies because she knew the benefits firsthand.
Six years ago, Brown struggled with depression after her divorce. About that time, she moved to a five-acre farm in Maple Plain where she kept horses. She found that grooming, feeding and riding her horses helped her persevere.
"They helped me focus, and get through the tough times," Brown said.
She also saw how horses improved the speech and calmed the behavior of an autistic boy.
Brown, who spent much of her adult life raising her three children, was ready to start a career. But she had little work experience and only a year and a half of college. She went to career counseling, took the career tests, and at one time thought of going into pharmacy.
That's when she discovered the program for individualized learning at the University of Minnesota's College of Continuing Education. The program, which has been around for about 30 years, allows students to create their own course of study, no matter how unconventional. Working closely with a faculty adviser, students draw from university courses, workplace settings, community programs and their own experiences.
"Patti has a passion about horses and helping people deal with a variety of different problems," said Betsy Leach, Brown's academic adviser at the college.
"She is like a lot of our students—she went out and found the resources she needed to put her program together."
There are typically about 150 students in the program, Leach said. They average 35 years of age, but range from 19 to 70 years old. The degrees also range from aerospace communications (the student hopes to work in the space program) to Scottish literature, and from deaf culture and educational technology to the science of intelligent machines.
Brown spent three years designing and redesigning her program. She took various courses in psychology and sociology, tapped the training resources of organizations such as the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association in Santaquin, Utah, conducted related projects and did volunteer work. She also had to meet the university's liberal arts requirements.
Why horses? Brown says horses are like humans in that they are social animals, with defined roles, yet they also have distinct personalities, attitudes and moods. What sets them apart from other intelligent animals is the way they sense and respond to human body language and emotion.
"Dogs don't always respond honestly—they tend to like everyone, even those who have abused them," Brown said. "Horses have no pretense. They are very sensitive—they mirror back emotion."
In researching the therapeutic effects of horses, she found they are often used in physical or occupational therapy. A less common but growing use is in treating emotional or behavioral problems. That's the field she wants to pursue—specifically, working with abused women. For instance, she hopes to work with former prostitutes in the Women's Recovery Center in St. Paul.
"These women are victims, and they act like victims," Brown said. "People often project themselves into the horse, and the way they handle the horse reveals a lot about who they are as a person."
One of her exercises is to have a "victim" discover on her own how to guide the horse around an arena, or halter or saddle a horse.
"You can't believe how empowering it feels for an abused person to gain mastery over something that weighs 1,200 pounds," Brown said.
Until she's a certified therapist—she wants to get her master's degree in counseling—she plans to work in tandem with a licensed therapist.
