A team of University of California Davis (UCD) researchers published a study giving new insights into how donkeys or minihorses improve our moods. Claire Short, who manages the Green Care Lab at UCD and UCD Associate Professor Rebecca Calisi Rodríguez conducted the study to see how interacting with donkeys in different ways can have different effects on a person’s mood. The team analyzed interactions between 61 teenagers and a small herd of donkeys and mini horses at the nonprofit animal rescue Skyheart Sanctuary at Pine Trails Ranch in Davis, California.
Half of the students were instructed to gently stroke the animals’ backs and the other half to vigorously scratch their necks in a way that mimics how equines groom each other. The teens were also taught to recognize if the animals showed lip-wriggling (an indication of pleasure or enjoyment) and/or walking away (a sign that the animal wants some more personal space). The results showed that the animals wriggled their lips during 75% of neck-scratching interactions and 48% of the time during petting interactions. The animals walked away during 89% of petting interactions and 42% of neck-scratching interactions. The teenagers themselves experienced increased calmness and lower levels of nervousness, sadness, loneliness and excitement while petting and scratching the animals. The teens who saw lip-wriggling demonstrated greater decreases in loneliness and the teens who observed equines walking away from them demonstrated greater reductions in sadness. These indicate that the manner of interaction with an animal can affect a person’s mood drastically. Why does this matter? Because taking these findings into consideration will allow us to better design and administer animal-assisted therapies.