How Horses Can Help Couples Battling Dementia and Alzheimer’s.

A program at UC Davis is using collaborative efforts with horses to help couples dealing with Dementia and Alzheimer's."Horses have this innate ability to sense feeling and energy around them and they give you that immediate feedback," said Paula Hertel, who alongside Nancy Schier Anzelmo created the Connected Horse Project. Both have worked with horses their whole lives, and spent their professional careers focused on seniors' health issues like Alzheimers and Dementia. Between those subjects they drew a connection one not everyone saw at first. Most estimates from the Alzheimer's Association put the number of Americans suffering from Alzheimer's at more than five million - the majority are over age 65. In its worst stages Alzheimer's patients can lose their ability to speak entirely. Working with the horses takes nonverbal communication. At the heart of the research with Connected Horses, the idea that couples dealing with Alzheimer's can learn to interact better with each other by communicating with the horses. continue