With the popularity of the books and movies “Seabiscuit” and “Secretariat,” we know the America loves horse racing. Something about witnessing the power, speed and heart of a magnificent Thoroughbred thundering down the track can really captivate a human heart.

And certainly the story of a horse that “comes from behind” to beat his favored opponent just strides before the wire, uplifts us all in a way that is difficult to describe.

Well, we may have one such horse right now. I’ll Have Another, the plain chestnut colt trained by Doug O’Neill, was not favored to win the Kentucky Derby. In fact, nobody even thought he’d place. And yet, he came out of the blue to commandingly run down the favorite, Bodemeister, in what many would later call a fluke.

More people than ever before are “connected.” Smart phones, iPads, laptops and video games seem the normal things to turn to when forced to wait for anything these days, even if the wait is only 3 minutes.

These connection devices have easily infested almost every area of our lives and people — so much so that to ask someone to put down the phone, shut off the computer or iPad, or disconnect the earbuds from their ears is like asking them to stop breathing. Most people will complain that without their device, they don’t feel “connected.”

However, nothing could be farther from the truth.

As equine therapy has gained popularity, we have experienced a surge of new books, certification programs, training manuals and even movies depicting different equine therapy and the many benefits it can offer. Along with this movement, studies have been conducted on the efficacy of equine therapy, many of which have become the basis for the written material.

Recently, a new book was written by Anita Shkedi, who, in 1985, founded Therapeutic Riding in Israel. Ms. Shkedi also holds a postgraduate diploma in Health Visiting, a British State Registered Nurse diploma, and a Therapeutic Riding Certificate. Additionally, she is the founding director of INTRA-I.

Shkedi’s book incorporates both her experience as founder of a therapeutic riding center in Israel, as well as her clinical knowledge of the ways in which the brain is influenced by equine therapy.

A few days ago, I blogged about the importance of authenticity in assuring a happy and fulfilling life, and also noted that Neil Pasricha, the author of “the Book of Awesome,” and the 1000 Awesome Things blog, calls authenticity one of the three parts of awesome.

I additionally offered an authenticity challenge to my readers: be authentic at least once in the coming weeks.

However, I also put myself to the same challenge and related that I would work with my horse, Celine, in an equine therapy session to help clarify for me just how I was feeling.

So here are the results of that session:

On the heels of Neil Pasricha’s overwhelmingly successful blog, 1000 Awesome Things and subsequent book, “The Book of Awesome,” many people are beginning to wonder just what comprises awesome. Luckily, in a recent TED talk, Pasricha breaks down this overarching concept into three simple things: Attitude, Awareness and Authenticity.

So, being that a hallmark of equine therapy is learning the capacity to be authentic, I thought now would be an appropriate time to issue an authenticity challenge. That’s right, this week, I challenge you, the reader, to be authentic at least one time. And I mean fully authentic.

Equine therapy has certainly been popular for autism, developmental disorders and now veterans with PTSD, but for clinical therapists, the bulk of cases have to do with relationships. The question then becomes, can equine therapy help improve relationships?

The answer, is yes, and here are three ways:

There are many reasons people do things, and often, these motivations are not obvious to the external world. While we tend to portray motivation as the desire to do something,  motivation can also represent the desire to return to something.

The concept of motivation as a regressive experience was first discussed by Freud, who introduced the concept of repetition compulsion. According to Freud, repetition compulsion happens for two reasons. While both are unconscious processes, the first is lodged in the patient’s physiology.

In the field of psychotherapy, the concept of ethical responsibilities is a very important one. Inherent in this responsibility is every therapist’s duty to protect and do no harm to the client. And in the field of equine therapy nothing is different, except the horse.

Do practicing equine therapists think about the ethical treatment of the horse? Probably not as much as they should. In the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association’s (EAGALA) published code of ethics, unfortunately, not once is the ethical treatment of the horse mentioned.

Consequently, EAGALA has been criticized for their treatment of the horse as a therapeutic tool — an object, if you will — as opposed to a sentient being. At the time EAGALA was coming into it’s own, the North American Handicapped Riding Association (NAHRA), which had been in existence for many years, was doing some changing.

The popularity of equine therapy has been increasing dramatically, and because of this, it has expanded into many different settings. Equine therapy can now be found as part of veteran rehabilitation programs, outpatient therapy offered to children with developmental disorders as part of a hospital’s treatment model, and even surprisingly, part of the required curriculum for Stanford Medical students.

As this expansive development has occurred, many in the psychotherapeutic field have also wondered where the research to support this new treatment approach is being published.

Some journals have produced articles supporting equine therapy, much research has been funded by the Horse and Human Research foundation, and some researchers have chosen to conduct and publish their own research independently.

With this movement toward a more solid research foundation in equine therapy, and the increasing public interest in a promising new therapeutic approach, universities have also begun to take interest in the field. A few now offer masters programs in equine-related therapy, and some also offer certification programs as well.

While separate and distinct theoretical approaches have been well recognized in traditional therapy settings for many years, equine therapy has been categorized as experiential from the beginning. Especially for those who are not familiar to the unique modality of healing horses can offer, it has been all too easy to simply place this form of therapy into the same category as rope courses, art therapy, and wilderness courses. Yet, in classifying equine therapy in this way, not only has the feeling and understanding of the work been stilted, but also the fact that in incorporating horses into the therapeutic dimension, separate theories have evolved, just as with traditional therapy, has been missed.