The Horses and Humans Research Foundation (HHRF) is pleased to share the following announcement regarding the recent Summit on equine-assisted activities and therapies (EAAT) Terminology as sponsored by the Bob Woodruff Foundation. We celebrate the progress.

The long-awaited summit for reaching consensus on baseline terms and definitions for Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies took place in Denver, July 20-22. Funded by the Bob Woodruff Foundation, 17 dedicated people bringing different and varied perspectives, expertise and association representation, gathered together and, with the facilitation assistance of Zia partners, tackled the issue of inconsistent terminology. 

Significant progress was made in understanding the issues, reviewing the survey results, clarifying the language and developing a white paper to report the findings and recommendations. Finalizing the work and recommendations in the white paper will continue over the next few months. Starting in October, the initial draft will begin to be shared with various stakeholders and association members to gather feedback. Gathering and synthesizing this feedback will happen through the end of the year. The summit participants will then review that feedback to complete the final paper with the goal to release the final document by the middle of next year.

Thank you to all of the summit participants for sharing their expertise and their thoughtful conversation. Thank you to everyone that took the survey or shared their perspectives to inform these conversations.

We look forward to the next phase of clarifying how to consistently and clearly communicate about working with equines to benefit people.

Don’t forget HHRF grant applications are due by August 1, 2019. Please visit our website for additional information, guidelines and application paperwork!