--- title: "Scientists Claim That Three Minutes With a “Donkey or Small Horse” Can Save Teenagers From Depression" description: "Life got you feeling down? A donkey could be the solution to lifting your spirits, according to new research." date: "2026-09-20" modified: "2026-09-20" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/health-medicine/three-minutes-donkey-small-horse-teenagers-depression" categories: - "Brain" - "Health & Medicine" - "Mental Health" --- # Scientists Claim That Three Minutes With a “Donkey or Small Horse” Can Save Teenagers From Depression ![A teenager standing by a small horse.]() *Shutterstock* Life got you feeling down? A donkey could be the solution to lifting your spirits. This is the gist of a [new study]() published in the journal *Science Reports*, which found that teenagers who spent as little as three minutes petting and caressing rescued donkeys and miniature horses immediately felt less anxious, sad, and lonely, while also feeling calmer. It may not literally cure your depression, but the work shows that interacting with these animals can significantly enhance your mood. "It was lovely to see that interacting with nature could make such a positive difference so quickly," study co-lead author Rebecca Calisi-Rodríguez, an associate professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior at the University of California, Davis, [told the *Washington Post*](). The therapeutic potential of animals, of course, is nothing new. But the researchers wanted to focus on something that other studies on animal-assisted mental health interventions have overlooked: how the animals' reacted to the different ways people treated them. "You can't stand in a pasture watching a child and a donkey interact and pretend only one of them is having an experience," Calisi-Rodríguez said in a [statement]() about the work. "They're watching each other, they're responding to each other, they're both making choices. That realization became the heart of my work and the heart of this paper." To explore this, the researchers divided the 61 teenagers into two groups. One was told to gently stroke the donkeys' and miniature horses' backs, and the others were told to scratch their necks, which mimics how equines groom each other. All of them were taught to recognize two behavioral cues. If the donkey wriggles its lips, it's feeling pleasure. If the donkey walks away, it wants to be left alone. Unsurprisingly, the donkeys wriggled their lips more during neck-scratching and usually walked away when they were petted on the back. The interesting bit is what this did for the teens. All of the teens reported feeling calmer regardless if they scratched or petted the animal. But the ones who saw the donkeys wriggle their lips experienced bigger decreases in loneliness, the study found. And even the ones whose donkeys walked away from them had bigger reductions in sadness. The important part, it seems, is being in tune with the animal. "Seeing an animal exercise choice — being free to approach you, stay with you, or walk away — may make the interaction feel more authentic," Calisi Rodríguez said in the statement. "This really isn't a story about the best way to pet a donkey, as cute as that would be. It's a story about reciprocity," she added. Remember: it's therapy for the animals, too. **More on mental health:** [*Scientists Can’t Figure Out Why Just Walking In Nature Appears to Quickly Heal Your Brain Rot*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()