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
More episodes of Equine Assisted World with Rupert Isaacson
- Curiosity Over Fear: Building Resilience in Horses and Humans | Kira Julius | EAW 52
- From Problem Horse to Professional Practice: What Trauma Teaches Us About Training | Petra Vlasblom of 2Moons.nl, Netherlands | EAW 51
- Urban Horses, Hidden Access & Equine Therapy in the City | Lucy Dillon of ChildVision Dublin | EAW 50
- Grief, Horses & the Sacred Present: Love, Loss and Resilience with Karla Brahms | Equine Assisted World 49
- Rescue as Relationship: Horses, Trauma & Second Chances with Christine Doran | Equine Assisted World Ep 48
- Creating New Stories Together: Horses, Grief, Theater & Belonging with Betsy Kahl | EP 47
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