Why Learning Stops When Curiosity Is Lost | Katja Mehlhorn | EAW 45

About this episode

Rupert Isaacson interviews psychologist Katja Mehlhorn about the intersection of curiosity, movement, and equine-assisted learning for children facing various challenges.

In this episode of Equine Assisted World, Rupert Isaacson speaks with Katja Mehlhorn — psychologist, academic, and founder of Horse Kids Groningen in the Netherlands. Katja bridges two worlds that rarely meet: university‑level research and deeply embodied, nature‑based equine‑assisted practice. From her early work in PATH programs in the United States to building a highly individualized, child‑led practice on a Dutch farm, Katja shares how curiosity, movement, imagination, and horse welfare shape everything she does. Together, Rupert and Katja explore how neuroplasticity, safety, and play support learning in children who struggle with anxiety, school refusal, autism, and social‑emotional challenges. This conversation ranges widely — from teaching maths through Formula One role‑play on horseback, to helping traumatized clients rebuild self‑worth by caring for horses, to using landscapes, wildlife, foraging, and even horse poo as gateways to regulation and learning. Along the way, Katja reflects on leaving a secure university career to grow her farm‑based work, and on what the equine‑assisted field must do to stay ethical, relevant, and humane. If you want to support the show, you…

People in this episode

Host: Rupert Isaacson

Guest: Katja Mehlhorn

Topics covered

• curiosity
• neuroplasticity
• equine-assisted practice
• child-led learning
• anxiety
• social-emotional challenges

Keywords

• curiosity
• neuroplasticity
• equine-assisted therapy
• child-led practice
• anxiety
• autism
• learning
• horse welfare

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Horse Kids Groningen

Places: Netherlands, United States

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