Ami Moore Expands Horizon to Include Horses

Chicago, IL, November 03, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Ami Moore has made a name for herself in the Chicago area as a dog trainer who uses unique methods gleaned from her days as a children’s occupational therapist to manage pets’ behavior.

A lover of dogs from an early age, Moore is now exploring another childhood passion.

“Like all girls, I had a mad crush on horses for the first 20 years of my life,” Moore says. “Now, as a mature adult, I have the time to indulge my passion in a new direction – horses healing people.”

In order to learn about the bond which can be formed between horses and humans, Moore has become a charter member of the Equine Experiential Education Association (E3A), an international professional organization designed to provide a traditional training approach to the corporate, educational, coaching and personal development fields using the horse-human connection.

E3A trains professionals who want to use experiential learning activities with horses – known as Equine Assisted Learning - outside of existing special needs or mental health models.

While Moore admits that working with horses is “a new thing” for her, she says she’s found that there are many similarities between working with horses and working with dogs.

“Both animals require you to have ‘alphatude,’ or leadership energy,” she says.

“If the horse or dog senses that you are not pure of heart, they will walk all over you. If a horse walks all over you, it hurts.”

There are plenty of differences between the two animals as well, Moore says.

“Horses are a much more fragile species than dogs,” she notes. “Horses require more space, special facilities – and they’re much more expensive to maintain in optimal health.”

Still, she believes, both animals possess therapeutic powers.

A firm believer that dogs can be used to heal humans – a process she calls “the couch in the kennel” – Moore says horses also have the ability to read humans’ psychological orientation.

Moore will be using the principles she learns as a member of E3A to explore her childhood passion for horses, but she also plans to apply what she learns to her dog coaching profession.

“I am of the belief that the same tools, techniques, and procedures used in the field of equine assisted learning can be adopted for dog-human education, development, learning and coaching.”

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