HELENA — Horses like Lucas and Radar at the Carroll College anthrozoology department are helping students stay 'stable' during a stressful time of year.
These horses play a big role in supporting mental health, offering calm, connection, and a little holiday magic.
Miriam Tangen, a student in the program, said, “I truly love horses, and I love working with them and love sharing that with other people, and anthrozoology really bridges the gap of bringing people and animals together.”
The department did just that on Friday afternoon, walking two of the horses through campus, all while singing Christmas carols.
“I think it’s just a good stress reliever before finals, and it will bring a lot of smiles to a lot of faces,” Joslyn Herrin Morrison, a student in the program, said.
The anthrozoology program currently has seven horses, and for student Joslyn Herrin-Morrison, she has seen how they help her and hopes their holiday spirit will do the same for her fellow students.
“I think just being around animals in general is a good way to relieve stress, and being around the horses, especially for me, that’s my happy place, is around them,” Herrin-Morrison.
For Tangen, she says has learned so much from the horses, not just the courses, “We can learn a lot about friendships, interactions, how important our body languages are, and can tell us a lot more about ourselves than sometimes we can.”
