Keynote Session 

Equine-Assisted Therapy: An Insider Perspective on Integrating Lived Experience with Scientific Rigor

Dr. Dan Manolachescu

Presentation Description:

This presentation offers a powerful and thought-provoking journey into Equine-Assisted Services (EAS), told from a rare perspective: that of someone who has lived it from the inside—simultaneously as a horseman, a patient, and a researcher.

Before the accident, Dan was a professional rider and multisport athlete, deeply rooted in equestrian culture, performance, and the traditional values of competitive sport.

As a patient facing the dramatic consequences of a riding accident that resulted in tetraplegia, Dan shares a deeply human and motivational story of recovery, resilience, and adaptation—capturing the physical, emotional, and existential realities of long-term neurorehabilitation. In this context, Equine-Assisted Therapy appears not as a miraculous cure, but as a stabilizing, motivating, and profoundly meaningful force that sustained hope, engagement, and purpose during the most difficult phases of recovery.

Returning to the academic environment, Dan begins to look at therapy and recovery not only through the eyes of a patient, but also through the lens of a scientist. Moving beyond inspiration into critical analysis, this part of the presentation examines EAT through a rigorous scientific framework informed by lived experience. It openly addresses uncomfortable questions: the lack of standardized protocols, the fragility of existing evidence, and the high variability of real-world practice. At the same time, it highlights underexplored but scientifically relevant dimensions—motivation, emotional regulation, adherence, and identity reconstruction—as key variables that deserve systematic investigation.