Hilde Langeland Westgaard is a Norwegian public health researcher and practitioner whose work centers on horses in health promotion and youth development. She holds a PhD in public health on how interaction with horses can support adolescents’ development. She is trained as a teacher and counsellor and runs an Inn på tunet care farm, where she receives pupils who need support with life-mastery and coping skills.
She is responsible for the subject area Society and Public Health at the Norwegian Horse Centre, where she has developed the course “Hest i livsmestring” (Horses in life-mastery). Hilde is also the academic lead for Hest og Helse’s continuing education in horse-assisted interventions at NMBU (Norwegian University of Life Sciences). She has previously served a total of ten years on the board of Hest og Helse and is strongly engaged in the use of horses in health-promoting work.