How horse therapy is transforming lives in the United States will be the topic of an upcoming talk at USC.

Dr Bindi Bennett, who travelled on an Endeavour Research Fellowship for Indigenous Australians, will share what she learned in the US at a free public presentation Thursday 2 May 10am to 11am at USC Sunshine Coast campus at Sippy Downs, room KG.11A.

“It was so interesting to see how they are using horses to help people with trauma, in particular young people with behavioural problems, veterans and people on the autism spectrum,” said Dr Bennett, a Senior Lecturer of Social Work at USC.

“The practitioners told me about how effective it is and how quickly it works.”

She said Australia was about 20 years behind the United States in terms of implementing horse therapy on a large scale but said that there were still many important lessons to share.

“The animal therapy programs already in place in Australia could benefit from learning about the strengths and weaknesses of the programs there,” Dr Bennett said.

“I think equine therapy in particular has enormous potential to help the Indigenous youth of Australia.”