Horses Detect Unspoken Messages

July 7, 2003 — A group of U.S. medical students have traded stethoscopes for horse halters and sterile hospital hallways for dusty equine exercise pens in a bid to improve their bedside manner with human patients.

A western U.S. ranch is the setting for an innovative University of Arizona Medical School course with the weighty title, "Medicine and Horsemanship: An Introduction to Human Nonverbal Interaction at the Bedside."

The course, the only medical school class of its kind in the United States, is a pioneering example of sensitivity training for young doctors-to-be.

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"This course is not about horses; it's about body language," said Dr. Allan Hamilton, a renowned neurosurgeon and head of the college's surgery department.

"Horses are very, very good at detecting those unspoken messages, and it's a wonderful way to teach medical students to become aware of their own body language," he said.

Because horses are vulnerable to becoming prey, they constantly scan their surroundings for potential threats and react against them, making them excellent barometers for how human movements can speak louder than words.

By learning to put the horses at ease, the medical students also find out how to respond sympathetically to emotionally charged situations, such as comforting worried patients or bereaved relatives.

"Horses are gigantic amplifiers for body language and are extremely sensitive to it," said Hamilton. "What we're actually doing is transmitting a true feeling in a nonverbal way. It's a wonderful, wonderful tool for teaching about bedside manner."

Students get up close to the horses in the training pen, but do not ride them or use saddles or bridles to control the nervous animals.

Instead, they learn and practice nonverbal clues — such as posture, eye contact, movement or breathing — to soothe, guide and encourage the 450-kilogram (1,000-pound) "patients" into completing simple tasks.

Students learn that simple gestures — such as gently patting a patient's shoulder, or sitting down in the exam room across from a patient — send the message that they have a genuine interest in hearing about his or her concerns and working together to heal them.

Hamilton, who also helps train and rehabilitate abused horses, said he had long noted parallels between the behavior of frightened horses and that of frightened humans.

During hospital rounds, he said, groups of doctors and medical students often descend on a patient's room without knocking and immediately launch a barrage of questions about their health.

"It occurred to me that we'd never do that to a horse," Hamilton said.

While horses have long been used to help disabled children learn confidence and independence, Lynn Thomas of the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association said she had never seen them used to train doctors.

"Using horses to help (able-bodied) people learn about themselves and their nonverbal communications is a pretty new field — but growing rapidly," she said.