The Brighter Side of Education: Research, Innovation & Resources
Hosted by Dr. Lisa Hassler, The Brighter Side of Education: Research, Innovation, & Resources a podcast that offers innovative solutions for education challenges. We bring together research, expert insights, and practical resources to help teachers and parents tackle everything from classroom management to learning differences. Every episode focuses on turning common education challenges into opportunities for growth. Whether you're a teacher looking for fresh ideas or a parents wanting to better support your child's learning, we've got actionable strategies you can use right away.
The podcast's music was created by Brandon Picciolini from The Lonesome Family Band. You can explore more of his work on Instagram.
The Brighter Side of Education: Research, Innovation & Resources
The Healing Power of Wild Mustangs: Biophilia & Equine Therapy with Erin Cain
Discover the power of equine therapy through the eyes of specialist Erin Cain, founder of Grace Reins Equine Therapy in Colorado. When words fall short in traditional therapy settings, horses step in as powerful healers for children struggling with anxiety, trauma, and emotional regulation.
The science behind this approach is fascinating. Horses, with heart rates half that of humans despite their massive size, naturally help children downregulate their nervous systems through a mirroring effect. This physiological connection creates a safe space for emotional processing that bypasses the need for verbal expression. For children who find traditional therapy settings intimidating or ineffective, the barn becomes a sanctuary where healing happens through movement, trust, and connection.
What makes Erin's program particularly special is her work with rescued wild mustangs. These magnificent animals bring their own stories of resilience and recovery to the therapeutic relationship, creating powerful parallels for children who have experienced hardship. As children learn the mustangs' journeys from trauma to trust, they discover new narratives for their own lives. The program extends beyond individual therapy to support entire family systems and provide educator wellness sessions, recognizing that healing happens in community.
Even without direct access to horses, parents and educators can incorporate elements of biophilia into daily routines. Simple practices like breath work, guided visualizations, and mindful movement help children build "cellular memory" of calm they can access anywhere. These techniques offer powerful tools for emotional regulation that complement traditional educational approaches.
Ready to explore how equine therapy might benefit a child in your life? Organizations like PATH (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship) can connect you with certified programs in your area.
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Sponsored by Dr. Gregg Hassler Jr., DMD
Trusted dental care for healthy smiles and stronger communities—building brighter futures daily.
If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, email me at lisa@drlisahassler.com or visit www.drlisahassler.com. Subscribe, tell a friend, and consider becoming a supporter by clicking the link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2048018/support.
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What if the most effective therapy for struggling children happened not in an office, but in a barn? Traditional therapy relies on words, but equine therapy creates healing through movement, trust and connection. Today we're exploring biophilia our innate affinity for animals, and how wild mustangs are helping children overcome anxiety and trauma when conventional approaches fall short. Join me with Erin Cain from Grace Reins Equine Therapy to discover how these remarkable animals are transforming children's lives and how parents and teachers can tap into this powerful approach. Welcome to the brighter side of education. Welcome to the brighter side of education, research, innovation and resources.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:I'm your host, dr Lisa Hassler, here to enlighten and brighten the classrooms in America through focused conversation on important topics in education. In each episode, I discuss problems we as teachers and parents are facing and what people are doing in their communities to fix it. What are the variables and how can we duplicate it to maximize student outcomes? In a previous episode, equine Assisted Psychotherapy helps ADHD students. With therapist Joanne Tomer, we explored how working with horses supports children with ADHD by improving focus, self-regulation and confidence. And if you're interested in that discussion, as well as the history of equine-assisted psychotherapy, I highly recommend going back to listen for a deep dive into the ADHD perspective, but today we're expanding the conversation to look at how equine-assisted therapy can support children with a broader range of mental health challenges, from anxiety to emotional trauma.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Research consistently shows that interaction with horses creates profound benefits for children's mental health. Studies in the Journal of Child and Family Studies demonstrate that equine-assisted interventions significantly reduce anxiety and stress in children with emotional and behavioral disorders. This therapeutic approach works on multiple levels. Physically, the rhythmic movement of horses activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation and emotional regulation, while psychologically, horses serve as natural biofeedback partners. Our innate tendency to connect with animals, what scientists call biophilia, explains why many children who struggle with traditional therapy thrive in the presence of horses.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Unlike office based approaches that rely on verbal expression, equine therapy offers a nonverbal path to healing that's particularly effective for children who have experienced trauma or face communication challenges, and that's where today's guest, Erin Cain, comes in. Erin is an equine specialist in mental health and learning and the founder of Grace Reigns Equine Therapy in Colorado, where she connects children with the healing power of horses. Her journey into equine-assisted therapy began with a lifelong passion for horses, but it was through a firsthand experience that she discovered their profound ability to support children's emotional well-being. Today, erin is here to share how equine-assisted therapy works in practice, what makes horses such powerful therapeutic partners, and how parents and educators can explore this transformative approach for children in need. Welcome to the Brighter Side of Education, erin.
Erin Cain:It's great to have you with us today. Thank you so much for having me. It's so important to talk about education and innovation with our kids and how we can help them learn things and, yeah, this is very timely, thank you.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Your journey into equine-assisted therapy comes from a place of a deep personal connection. Can you share what experiences led you to establish Grace Reigns and then how you've witnessed the healing power of horses in your own life before you brought it to children and families?
Erin Cain:So, yeah, I mean, I've been in this field since the mid-90s and then, having gone back to school early 2000s to get my education in equine therapy as an equine specialist in mental health and learning and also a therapeutic riding instructor, and just happened upon this program back in the Northeast, sort of marrying my love of horses and my desire to be of service in this life. So that was such a blessing to find equine therapy and then subsequently having loss and trauma and finding my own way and understanding how that played an integral part in my healing. Most people can relate to how animals help us during difficult times and really every day, but especially we go to them often in crisis Therapy. Dogs and therapy animals are much more prevalent in today's society. So once I had that experience and understanding of what they could do for us and what being around the horses and the many modalities in equine therapy, yeah that was a no-brainer for me to go back to school and pursue my education so that I could bring it to more people.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:What kind of observations have you made with that human-animal bond developing and those healing opportunities that is not possible in traditional settings?
Erin Cain:Well, a traditional modality of therapy can be very daunting and very intimidating and we don't always have the words, nevermind connecting the feelings to words right. So you're sort of taking all of that off the table. In an equine therapeutic setting, you're not really asked to articulate what it is. You're there for, what it is that you need and, honestly, just a beautiful overall, calming, grounding experience. And then you add to that that you're in a non-judgmental space, a reset space, where you can be back in touch with yourself and find your ground and find your baseline and begin to sort of unfurl like what is it that I'm trying to work with right now in my life and how is this space going to mirror that for me, you know, with the children in particular, it's really interesting to just sit with them and observe the dynamics in the herd, because they're all dealing with so much in their social lives at school and in this environment. We're observing the herd and we're mirroring and actually understanding how this dynamic works and who we are in that space. It's very empowering for them.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:You brought up mirroring, and so what is mirroring and how does that affect things like heart rate and nervous system?
Erin Cain:with the intention of down shoulders, to unclench our jaws, to be in the space with the horse. Put our hands on the horse's bodies. They have a heart rate that is half of ours. So even though they're 10 times our size, their heart beats half the times that ours does. So that in and of itself, that encompassing energy can really help us to slow down, to breathe, to just let down our guard a little bit. And, you know, let that emotion come up, because what's happening physiologically with us will just invite that emotion to just bubble up, and the horse invites that naturally. So if they're feeling comfortable with you, they're just going to drop into that space with you. So that feels really good.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:We work with kids on things like grief and loss, empathy, mindfulness, depression, and so I can see where having that physical connection with an animal makes it a little bit easier, that bridge to deal with that. And you work with wild mustangs specifically. Deal with that and you work with wild Mustangs specifically. Can you talk about why the wild Mustangs and what distinctive qualities do those horses bring to therapeutic work and how are the kids responding to that?
Erin Cain:I don't know if you're familiar with the Mustang population in the West and how it's been eradicated.
Erin Cain:Over the last 50 years or so the population has diminished to near extinction.
Erin Cain:Actually They've been rounded up and some of the government programs have holding pens for them, but mostly they've just been gone off to.
Erin Cain:It's a terrible thing to talk about but they do go off to slaughter many, many of them in Mexico and that's a whole other terrible part of the story.
Erin Cain:But the good part of the story for us is that we've been able to tap into the rescue of the wild mustangs and be able to adopt. That sort of started for us about 10 years ago, moving from the domestic horse population into the rescue, and so with the Mustangs in particular, a lot of them are adopted when they're very young. They just have such a story around them that when we share that story with people who have had great loss or addiction or had a dark journey of their lives, and when you share with them the resilience and the story of the Mustangs and how they you know they came from such trauma and so much despair and then coming to us and having the period of time where it could be, you know months or years really to be able to get them to downregulate and be able to trust us and build that trust again is just a really powerful narrative for people that they can relate to.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:You have educator wellness programs as well. How did you carve that out specifically for an educator wellness session and how do they work? What kind of benefits have you seen?
Erin Cain:Well, as you know, these are frontline workers, right and in every way, and so it's an easy place to come to when you're treating the population, ie the children, and understanding every day that these paraprofessionals school teachers, administrators what their lives are like on a day-to-day basis. So it was just a beautiful supportive idea, you know, just like a field trip or a, you know, an end of year teachers coalition out. It has been a beautiful process, just a supportive program for all of those people that are doing that behind the scenes work have you had any connections between students in the classroom and their teachers where you were able to serve the population from the same school?
Dr. Lisa Hassler:I could see where that could be very impactful.
Erin Cain:Yes, that's exactly right, Lisa, and as you know firsthand experience with the teachers, there's a lot put on them and so, yes, bringing that together cohesively is just. It makes so much sense and is just a lesson for all of us of how we're all working together and there is no separation, really, but because we have the privilege, modeling with children is just so powerful.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Thinking about serving a community. So you've got the child and now the teacher to help with that school relationship, so that there's a better understanding of a different way to approach, but also like how to handle emotions, or like you're talking about the deregulating and the grounding. Do you do anything with families?
Erin Cain:Yes, we can see each other differently, in a different setting. I mean, this is a very unique setting for most people that they don't have experience with it, and so they're coming with like a freshness and an openness, and so any opportunity to see one another with fresh eyes and in a new setting, you really begin to recognize each other individually. And last week there was a family here and the dad started to tell this story he had as a child with horses and his wife said well, I never knew that about you. And the kids said you know, they were 15 and 17,. They said we don't know this part of your story, we don't know this about you. And I thought that is so beautiful and that's a lot of what this invites. You know to inadvertently teach the ones they love like. This is a part of me and this is another aspect of me. It changes a lot of things when we see each other holistically and this environment gives that opportunity. So thank you for bringing that up, lisa. That's another really beautiful aspect of experiences here.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:We had a connection problem, and so now Erin is joining us on her phone.
Erin Cain:Great. Thank you so much. Sorry for the technical challenges, but I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to talk about all of this and help people and educate people to understand that there are other opportunities and different modalities for getting through tough times in school or in adulthood or whatever, wherever they're at in their life or journey?
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Yeah, Teachers, families you're really supporting the entire community and a lot of educators either might experience it themselves or know about it because of, maybe, children that you're serving or families, and so I can see where. Then they might be excited about the ways that they can promote emotional regulation in their own classrooms and want to use biophilia as a way to be able to do it. If they have the opportunity to reference students or families to your services because they're local, that would be amazing. But let's say they don't have any access and they still want to have that kind of impact in their own classroom. Are there things that they can do to promote that biophilia in their own classroom?
Erin Cain:Yes, absolutely Well, any type of breath work or relaxation exercises. I know, when my son was in grammar school, I remember him coming home and saying they did yoga in school and I thought, oh my gosh, that's so precious, it's so wonderful.
Erin Cain:I often say. We do a lot of kids' summer camps in the summertime, obviously, and the kids get out of the van or transportation and it's just like Lord of the Flies. And then we gather them up and sit them in a circle and we do some deep breath work or whatever yoga pose and they just are in such a different energy within 10 minutes. You know it's just really, it's really precious, and so you can invite that same idea into a classroom. Of course, not to say that it would be easy peasy, but anything that you know gets on a schedule. If they know, like Monday mornings we're going to do some yoga or we're going to do breath work, or this teacher invites us to stand up out of our desks and stretch our arms to the ceiling, sit on the grass. You can travel in your mind. You can do a visual exercise. You close your eyes and let's travel to a farm, or let's travel to an ocean. It doesn't take much, especially when it's done alongside of breath work, to get our brains to travel away from where we are and quiet our monkey brains. Even if it's for a few minutes, you're sort of building a cellular memory for all of us. But with children, who are so malleable and precious. You can do something 10 minutes a week and it'll develop inside of them on a cellular level where they're teach the kids here. You know, when you leave here you're taking this with you. It's inside of you.
Erin Cain:It's easy for us to remember our trauma, it's easy for us to access like we talk a lot about triggers and things in our world but you can also access your joyful and happy memories. And you can also access your joyful and happy memories and you can also access your calm self. That is all inside of us cellularly as well. And so that is a good reminder for all of us to have those moments during the week where we say, okay, I'm super stressed out, I'm driving and I'm tense and I'm well, let's just do that five minute exercise. Let's take, you know, just doing that Like literally I think sometimes I'm driving and people are probably looking at me like I'm crazy, but nobody's looking at us. It's another reminder for us. You know, just doing those jaw and shoulders exercises and deep breaths can just it changes your chemistry really quickly. So those are good reminders and they can be with us.
Erin Cain:They're with us all the time.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:I love that and I used to do like meditations and with children and we did yoga in the classroom as well when I felt like they were getting extra squirmy and that was a wonderful way to be able to just kind of relax. And, recenter, and we'd push the desks aside and take off our shoes and put on this wonderful video. It was called Cosmic Yoga and she did yoga, stretching to stories, and the kids loved it. It could do like Star Wars or you know, and we picked it based on time limit and their interests. So it was so much fun and the kids really listened, they were engaged, they were stretching and I saw such a difference when they returned back to classroom activities.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:They really enjoyed that break. It was a mental, physical break. And then also I did teach at a religious school, so we did some prayer and um. But I would have them do visual meditations where I'd say, okay, you're going to close your eyes and I put on calm music, you know background, nature sounds and then tell them you are walking through a field, put your fingers out, you're touching the tops of the grass, the sun is on your cheeks, raise your face up and feel the warmth on your face. We would just do these visual meditations and it was wonderful, really beneficial and it's easy to do.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:You can do it anywhere. You don't need anything for that.
Erin Cain:Yes, that's right.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Then, looking towards the future, how do you envision equine-assisted therapy becoming more integrated into mainstream mental health and education support systems, and what would you like parents and educators to understand about this potential?
Erin Cain:Well, thank you, lisa, and certainly people like yourself. Educating people is critical, getting it out there, having people know that it's out there and accessible. Hopefully that will grow and grow. There are many, many facilities across the country. Path is the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship, and that is my sort of mothership, and that's a global organization. These programs are all over the world in like war-torn countries.
Erin Cain:I remember working with a girl from Eastern Europe and she had used caution tape to make a round pen. It makes me emotional to make a round pen to work with children in her area and to keep the horse. It's just incredible All that to say that that is the main organization that I work under and if you go online and look up where these programs are, chances are hopefully there'll be something nearby or somebody knows somebody that's maybe doing their own program on a smaller scale. But getting it into the schools and getting it into the mental health arena as an opportunity and an option for people in a sort of non-traditional modality is just so important and that's what we're trying to do with the help of people like you.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:And then I think about you know, when kids are saying you know, I want to be this when I grow up. They could do this, they could learn, they could become one.
Erin Cain:Yes, that's right. I know we do internships with the kids at the high school, we work with the court system, we do community service programs, so and people come out and they just go. Oh my gosh, I didn't know anything about this, I didn't know this even existed. But I love animals and I love helping people and so there's that marriage there for them and whether it be you know that the people are working sort of in the back of the house, if you will, to support the program that they're feeding the horses, they're volunteering, you know, in the barn to do fencing projects, and such an uplifting experience whenever we're in service to others. So giving that opportunity is just such a privilege. And I'm just the conduit, I'm the one that gets to hold the space here, but there's so many magical people, the people that actually come are doing the work and are wanting to do better and be better and feel better, so they're the heroes here with the horses.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Well, thank you so much for joining me today and for sharing all of these insights about the healing power of horses and your wild mustangs and things that you're doing out there in Colorado and then letting others know about it so you know we can pick up that work and do it in other places so that it spreads.
Erin Cain:Thank you so much. It's our privilege and I really appreciate your time and what you're doing to help people as well. Thank you so much, Lisa.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:The research is clear Our natural connection to animals offers powerful healing opportunities. Equine therapy taps into this biophilia to help children develop resilience, emotional regulation and confidence, often when traditional approaches have hit roadblocks. If today's conversation resonated with you, I encourage you to explore equine-assisted therapy programs in your local community. While Erin's Grace Rains program operates in Colorado, similar therapeutic approaches are available across the country. Ask local riding stables, mental health providers or school counselors about certified equine therapy options near you.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, you can email me at lisa at drlisahasslercom, or visit my website at wwwdrlisahasslercom and send me a message. If you like this podcast, subscribe and tell a friend. The more people that know, the bigger impact it will have. And if you find value to the content in this podcast, consider becoming a supporter by clicking on the supporter link in the show notes. It is the mission of this podcast to shine light on the good in education so that it spreads, affecting positive change. So let's keep working together to find solutions that focus on our children's success.
