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.
