Reflections on price, value, and what really happens in an EAS session
A few days ago I had a conversation that stayed with me. A family I had worked with decided to continue their process somewhere else. I understand. Price matters, and every family’s financial reality is completely valid.
What gave me more pause was something else: the images I saw afterwards.
A child with additional support needs, on a small pony, posture compromised, being managed by someone whose main motivation appeared to be the horses, not the child. All of it presented as a therapeutic intervention.
I’m not writing this to judge anyone. Not the family, not the space. I’m writing because I think there is something important that deserves to be said clearly.
Price isn’t the problem. Confusion is.
In the field of Animal Assisted Interventions, and more specifically in EAS (Equine Assisted Services), there is a growing confusion between what a pony ride is and what a professional equine-assisted intervention actually looks like.
Both can have value. They are not the same thing.
None of that is improvised. None of it is cheap to sustain. And none of it should be called «therapy» if it doesn’t meet those criteria.
A well-designed EAS session involves:
- User assessment,
- Defined therapeutic or educational goals,
- Horse welfare as a non-negotiable condition,
- Specialist training of the professional, and
- Ethical framework that protects everyone involved.
Horse welfare is not a detail
When a horse works in an intervention context, their emotional, physical and behavioural state matters. Not as scenery. As an active participant.
A horse managing its own distress while carrying a child with complex needs is not therapeutising anyone. It is surviving the session.
I don’t say this from theory. I say it from over 15 years of walking alongside horses and people, from working with the EvaSE protocol, from the ethics that guide every decision in my project.
To the families searching for this path
I understand that price hurts. I understand that you want the best for your child and that sometimes it seems like any contact with a horse is good.
And maybe it is. Contact with nature and animals has enormous value.
But if what you are looking for is an intervention, something with a clear purpose, that cares for your child and the animal, grounded in training and ethics, then it is worth asking the professional:
What is your training?
How do you care for your horses?
What happens if something goes wrong?
The answers will tell you far more than the price.
Carlos Ganzabal Cuena
CVO iPoney Outdoors Spaces
