How Equine Therapy Enhances Social-Emotional Competence in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Insights from Malaysian Case Studies

HRMARS - Among various animal-assisted therapy interventions, ET (equine therapy) has gained recognition due to its structured approach and unique benefits (Kunasegran & Subramaniam, 2020), it involves the use of trained professionals who employ horses to achieve therapeutic goals tailored to the client’s needs (PATH International, 2021). Globally, ET has been utilized for various conditions, such as ADHD treatment in Spain (Trzmiel et al., 2019), stress reduction among medical students in the U.S (Chakales et al., 2020), complex trauma intervention in New Zealand (Lietz & Napan, 2020), and therapy for neurological conditions in Sweden (Pálsdóttir et al., 2020), whereas Italy uses human-horse contact to induce psychological and motor changes in healthcare settings (Maresca et al., 2020). In Asia, research on ET is limited, example like Japan exploring ET could be useful to activate human brain activities (Matsuura et al., 2020) and China examining the effects of ET on social interaction and communication skills in children with ASD (Zhao et al., 2021). In Malaysia, ET was introduced in 1994 through the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) Malaysia (Soeed et al., 2020). As of 2022, RDA Malaysia operates 14 training centers providing ET to children and adults with disabilities, including ASD (David, 2023).