Frequently Asked Question
What is Equine Facilitated Learning?
Learning is most often done through didactics. Didactic learning is generally in the classroom with slides and a professor teaching a class with material on a particular subject matter. The student learns and returns information in the same form.
Experiential learning occurs through experience. The experiential learning model was popularized by David Kolb.* First a concrete experience occurs where the participant actively participates in a new task, activity or observation. The participant then reflects on the experience, analyzing what happened and how they felt about it. The participant experiencing the activity creates concepts or general principles. The participant applies what was learned in their experience in future situations.
Equine Facilitated Learning is experiential. Learning is done through the participants’ experience while with the horses. It starts with the here and now, being present in the moment and self-awareness.
- Step 1: We observe the horses. For example, during our observation we see them run together and into their stalls. They each have a stall but Romeo kicks Ferdie out of his stall and Ferdie waits outside the barn. That is a concrete experience.
- Step 2: We then pause and reflect on the observation connecting feelings and ideas about the experience.
- Step 3: How we perceive this observation is individualized. What do we become aware of at that moment? What concept or generalization can we make reflecting on our own life experiences?
- Step 4: The knowledge we gain about what we perceive and how it relates to our lives can then be practiced and tested.
Questions I may ask are: Why did they run? Why did they run into the stalls? Do they feel safe there? If so, perhaps what is safe for one is not safe for all.
* Institute for Experiential Learning. (n.d.). What is experiential learning? Retrieved October 9, 2026, from https://experientiallearninginstitute.org/what-is-experiential-learning/