TraumaEALNCT05579717
Examining the Effectiveness of EAL
A study testing Equine Assisted Learning in people with Trauma, run by McMaster University at 1 site in Canada.
Trial summary
This quasi-experiment will evaluate the effectiveness of Equine Assisted Learning for reducing symptoms associated with trauma exposure among public safety personnel (e.g., fire fighters, police, paramedics, etc.). Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 to 65 years
- Conditions the study is for
- Trauma
- What is being tested?
- Equine Assisted Learning
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 40 participants
- Where
- 1 siteCanada
- Study dates
- 1 Mar 2022to 31 Aug 2025
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 to 65 years
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- English-speaking adults;
- Currently or previously employed as public safety personnel (e.g., police officer, fire fighter, paramedic, healthcare worker, emergency dispatcher, correctional officer);
- Reside in Saskatchewan;
- Meet diagnostic criteria for having experienced a Criterion A traumatic event;
- Able to provide written informed consent;
- Have access to a smart phone, tablet, or computer with a working microphone and camera; and
- Have access to consistent and reliable internet.
Who cannot join
- Meet/met current/past diagnostic criteria for several psychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurological conditions;
- History of severe head trauma with loss of consciousness or history of traumatic brain injury;
- Have previously completed at least half of the EAL curriculum at Cartier Farms.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
About this study
Official title: Examining the Effectiveness of Equine Assisted Learning for Trauma-exposed Public Safety Personnel
This quasi-experiment will evaluate the effectiveness of Equine Assisted Learning for reducing symptoms associated with trauma exposure among public safety personnel (e.g., fire fighters, police, paramedics, etc.).
Read the detailed description
The purpose of the proposed project is to investigate the effectiveness of Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) for reducing symptoms associated with trauma exposure among public safety personnel. EAL is an intervention in which mental health clinicians and equine specialists work together with clients to address a learning goal via unmounted interaction with a horse. Recent literature indicates that EAL shows promise in addressing a range of mental health diagnoses among a variety of populations, including military and Royal Canadian Mounted Police veterans with PTSD. The EAL intervention will be delivered at Cartier Farms in Spruce Home, Saskatchewan. Research components of this study will be conducted virtually via Zoom.
The investigators will employ a quasi-experimental design with pre-post and follow-up testing. Participants will be assigned one of two groups based on the time that they complete their initial baseline interview: (1) the intervention group will receive the EAL intervention for 8 weeks, while (2) the waitlist control condition will not receive this treatment for the same amount of time. Data on trauma exposure symptom severity will be collected from all participants prior to the start of the the study (baseline), again 8 weeks later (post), and then a final time 3 months later (follow-up). The two conditions will then be compared to determine whether there are differences in trauma exposure symptom severity between groups. To obtain a sufficient sample size while also running appropriately sized interventions of 6-10 participants per session, the researchers will conduct 4-6 rounds of group assignment. All individuals in the waitlist control condition will be offered EAL following their completion of the study.
- Conditions
- Trauma
- Being tested
- Equine Assisted Learning
- Keywords
- EAL, PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder, public safety personnel, first responder, Equine Assisted Learning, horse therapy, trauma
- Medical subject headings
- Wounds and Injuries, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Equine Assisted LearningBehavioural
Also called EAL
EAL is an intervention in which mental health clinicians and equine specialists work together with clients to address a learning goal via unmounted interaction with a horse. It is 16 sessions in length, at a rate of two sessions per week.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Equine Assisted Learning group | Experimental | Participants in this group will receive 16 sessions of Equine Assisted Learning (EAL), facilitated by a trained clinician at Cartier Farms. Receives: Behavioral: Equine Assisted Learning |
| Waitlist control group | No intervention | Participants in the waitlist control group will not receive EAL for the duration of the study. |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
PTSD symptomatology
Changes in performance on the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (structured interview) at pre, post, and follow-up.
Measured: 20 weeks
PTSD symptomatology
Changes in performance on the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 80 with higher scores denoting higher PTSD symptomatology.
Measured: 20 weeks
Secondary outcomes (18)
Mental health symptomatology
Changes in performance on the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (structured interview) at pre, post, and follow-up.
Measured: 20 weeks
Depression, anxiety, and stress symptomatology
Changes in performance on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 42 with higher scores denoting higher depression, anxiety, and/or stress symptomatology.
Measured: 20 weeks
Substance involvement
Changes in performance on the World Health Organization's Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Test at pre, post, and follow-up. Each question on the ASSIST has a checklist set of responses to choose from to measure substances used in the past, and each response from questions 2 to 7 has a numerical score. Higher scores indicate more significant substance involvement.
Measured: 20 weeks
Health complaints
Changes in performance on the Physical Symptoms Questionnaire at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 33 with higher scores denoting more health complaints.
Measured: 20 weeks
Sleep quality
Changes in performance on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 21 with higher scores denoting poorer sleep quality.
Measured: 20 weeks
Body awareness
Changes in performance on the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness - Version 2 at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 185 with higher scores denoting greater body awareness.
Measured: 20 weeks
Moral injury
Changes in performance on the Moral Injury Assessment - Public Safety Personnel at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 17 and 102 with higher scores denoting higher moral injury.
Measured: 20 weeks
Dissociation
Changes in performance on the Multiscale Dissociation Index at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 120 with higher scores denoting higher dissociative symptomatology.
Measured: 20 weeks
Emotion regulation
Changes in performance on the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 36 and 180 with higher scores denoting poorer emotion regulation.
Measured: 20 weeks
Exposure to childhood trauma
Baseline description of trauma experienced in childhood based on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, which is a 28-item checklist where more endorsed traumatic experiences indicates more exposure to childhood trauma.
Measured: Completed once at baseline
Alcohol use disorder symptomatology
Changes in performance on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 40 with higher scores denoting higher AUD symptomatology.
Measured: 20 weeks
Cannabis use disorder symptomatology
Changes in performance on the Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 32 with higher scores denoting higher CUD symptomatology.
Measured: 20 weeks
Substance use disorder symptomatology
Changes in performance on the Drug Use Disorder Identification Test at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 44 with higher scores denoting higher SUD symptomatology.
Measured: 20 weeks
Resilience
Changes in performance on the Brief Resilience Scale at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 6 and 30 with higher scores denoting higher resilience.
Measured: 20 weeks
Self-compassion
Changes in performance on the Self Compassion Scale at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 26 and 130 with higher scores denoting higher self-compassion.
Measured: 20 weeks
Health and disability
Changes in performance on World Health Organization's Disability Assessment Schedule 12 at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 100 with higher scores denoting greater disability.
Measured: 20 weeks
Disability
Changes in performance on the Sheehan Disability Scale at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 44 with higher scores denoting greater disability.
Measured: 20 weeks
Work functioning and productivity
Changes in performance on Lam's Employment and Productivity Scale at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 28 with higher scores denoting more severe work impairment.
Measured: 20 weeks
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted14 Oct 2022
- Study start1 Mar 2022
- Primary completion31 Aug 2025
- Study completion31 Aug 2025
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for TraumaStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by McMaster UniversityThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Non-randomised
- Intervention model
- Crossover
- Model description
- Participants will be assigned to an intervention group or a waitlist control group based on the time they complete their initial baseline interview. Individuals in the waitlist control group will be offered the opportunity to participate in EAL once they have completed the study.
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 40 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- McMaster University
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- University of Saskatchewan, University of Regina
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Margaret McKinnon, McMaster University
- Investigators
- Margaret McKinnon, PhD, CPsych, Principal investigator, McMaster University
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT05579717
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 14547
- Acronym
- EAL
- Status last verified
- Dec 2025
- First submitted
- 28 Sep 2022
- Last updated
- 9 Dec 2025
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 9 Dec 2025. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Examining the Effectiveness of Equine Assisted Learning for Trauma-exposed Public Safety Personnel
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT05579717
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- EAL / 14547
- Conditions
- Trauma
- Keywords
- EAL, PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder, public safety personnel, first responder, Equine Assisted Learning, horse therapy, trauma
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 40 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- McMaster UniversityUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- University of Saskatchewan, University of Regina
- Study start
- 1 Mar 2022 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 31 Aug 2025 (actual)
- Study completion
- 31 Aug 2025 (actual)
- First posted
- 14 Oct 2022 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
This quasi-experiment will evaluate the effectiveness of Equine Assisted Learning for reducing symptoms associated with trauma exposure among public safety personnel (e.g., fire fighters, police, paramedics, etc.).
Detailed description
The purpose of the proposed project is to investigate the effectiveness of Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) for reducing symptoms associated with trauma exposure among public safety personnel. EAL is an intervention in which mental health clinicians and equine specialists work together with clients to address a learning goal via unmounted interaction with a horse. Recent literature indicates that EAL shows promise in addressing a range of mental health diagnoses among a variety of populations, including military and Royal Canadian Mounted Police veterans with PTSD. The EAL intervention will be delivered at Cartier Farms in Spruce Home, Saskatchewan. Research components of this study will be conducted virtually via Zoom.
The investigators will employ a quasi-experimental design with pre-post and follow-up testing. Participants will be assigned one of two groups based on the time that they complete their initial baseline interview: (1) the intervention group will receive the EAL intervention for 8 weeks, while (2) the waitlist control condition will not receive this treatment for the same amount of time. Data on trauma exposure symptom severity will be collected from all participants prior to the start of the the study (baseline), again 8 weeks later (post), and then a final time 3 months later (follow-up). The two conditions will then be compared to determine whether there are differences in trauma exposure symptom severity between groups. To obtain a sufficient sample size while also running appropriately sized interventions of 6-10 participants per session, the researchers will conduct 4-6 rounds of group assignment. All individuals in the waitlist control condition will be offered EAL following their completion of the study.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Non-randomised
- Intervention model
- Crossover
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
- Model description
- Participants will be assigned to an intervention group or a waitlist control group based on the time they complete their initial baseline interview. Individuals in the waitlist control group will be offered the opportunity to participate in EAL once they have completed the study.
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Equine Assisted Learning group | Experimental | Behavioral: Equine Assisted LearningParticipants in this group will receive 16 sessions of Equine Assisted Learning (EAL), facilitated by a trained clinician at Cartier Farms. |
| Waitlist control group | No intervention | –Participants in the waitlist control group will not receive EAL for the duration of the study. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 to 65 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (7 listed)
- English-speaking adults;
- Currently or previously employed as public safety personnel (e.g., police officer, fire fighter, paramedic, healthcare worker, emergency dispatcher, correctional officer);
- Reside in Saskatchewan;
- Meet diagnostic criteria for having experienced a Criterion A traumatic event;
- Able to provide written informed consent;
Key exclusion criteria (3 listed)
- Meet/met current/past diagnostic criteria for several psychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurological conditions;
- History of severe head trauma with loss of consciousness or history of traumatic brain injury;
- Have previously completed at least half of the EAL curriculum at Cartier Farms.
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Equine Assisted LearningAlso: EALEAL is an intervention in which mental health clinicians and equine specialists work together with clients to address a learning goal via unmounted interaction with a horse. It is 16 sessions in length, at a rate of two sessions per week. | Behavioural | Equine Assisted Learning group |
Primary outcome
PTSD symptomatology
Time frame: 20 weeks
Changes in performance on the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (structured interview) at pre, post, and follow-up.
PTSD symptomatology
Time frame: 20 weeks
Changes in performance on the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 at pre, post, and follow-up. Scores can range between 0 and 80 with higher scores denoting higher PTSD symptomatology.
18 secondary outcomes
Mental health symptomatology
Time frame: 20 weeks
Depression, anxiety, and stress symptomatology
Time frame: 20 weeks
Substance involvement
Time frame: 20 weeks
Health complaints
Time frame: 20 weeks
Sleep quality
Time frame: 20 weeks
Body awareness
Time frame: 20 weeks
Moral injury
Time frame: 20 weeks
Dissociation
Time frame: 20 weeks
Emotion regulation
Time frame: 20 weeks
Exposure to childhood trauma
Time frame: Completed once at baseline
Alcohol use disorder symptomatology
Time frame: 20 weeks
Cannabis use disorder symptomatology
Time frame: 20 weeks
Substance use disorder symptomatology
Time frame: 20 weeks
Resilience
Time frame: 20 weeks
Self-compassion
Time frame: 20 weeks
Health and disability
Time frame: 20 weeks
Disability
Time frame: 20 weeks
Work functioning and productivity
Time frame: 20 weeks
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 9 Dec 2025.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Margaret McKinnon, PhD, CPsych principal investigator
McMaster University
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Equine Assisted Learning in people with Trauma, run by McMaster University at 1 site in Canada.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 7 inclusion and 3 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 9 Dec 2025. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in Canada. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
PTSD symptomatology (time frame: 20 weeks). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 9 Dec 2025.