Think of the rein contact as if you were talking to someone at a comfortable distance across a dinner table. If you expand the distance and stop talking, the person loses attention and becomes distracted. If you suddenly shorten the distance and talk without a break, the person becomes uncomfortable and claustrophobic.—Jane Karol

Jane Karol, PsyD, is a U.S. Dressage Federation gold medalist. She has trained seven horses to Grand Prix and has worked with many of the top clinicians in the world, including Lendon Gray and Gerrit-Claes Bierenbroodspot. She is a doctorate-level psychologist and works with children in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy at her Bear Spot Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, which is also a dressage training facility (bearspotfoundation.org). She says that equine assisted psychotherapy harnesses the horse’s ability to be both loving friend and patient teacher.

This article first appeared in the November 2012 issue of Dressage Today.