Introduction: In animal assisted intervention (AAI), participants meet animals and have some benefits resulted from touching them, and a handler would assist them to promote proper intervention. In AAI, some social benefits for participants would result from proper assist by the handler, although participants take psychological and physiological effects.
Methodology: Research was performed about affections by a handler to a participant on psychological, physiological and ethological states during brushing a horse. Twenty-two adults brushed a horse, after obtaining the agreement from them. Horse-brushing was performed under supervision of one handler, skilled in handling horses in AAI. And it was performed under two conditions with no-intervention to the participant by the handler except the participant asked the handler about something. One condition was performed under giving the participant by one handler about the meaning of horse-brushing (condition-I) and another was done under without the meaning (condition-II). As physiological indexes cortisol and alpha-amylase in saliva and pulse, mood scale as psychological index and frequency of catching horse-face in a sight during horse-brushing as ethological index were tested on participants.
Main Results: After horse-brushing, saliva-alpha-amylase activity didn’t significantly change, although value of saliva-cortisol decreased significantly, and pleasure-mood-score increased significantly, in comparing with those before brushing (Friedman test, p<.05). Pulse in horse-brushing showed higher than that in taking saliva (Friedman test, p<.05). These're no differences between two conditions on psychological and physiological states. However, frequency of catching horse-face in a sight in the condition-I showed significantly more than that in condition-II (Mann-Whitney U-test, p<.05).
Conclusions: These results show that information from handlers to participants might change an ethological index on them unless it doesn’t make psychological and physiological indexes change.