Strength & Learning Through Horses

A life-changing mental health & education provision in North London. We work with vulnerable young people age 5 - 25 from across London and the Home Counties, many of whom struggle to engage in traditional therapy and classroom settings but thrive in the inclusive outdoor setting of our stables. We are a charity partnership run by senior Clinical Psychologists and Nationally Respected Horse Trainers. We work with London’s most vulnerable young people who are excluded from education or at risk of exclusion. Typical young people we work have multiple mental health diagnoses and have experienced childhood abuse and / or neglect. Many have a learning difficulty diagnosis and over 30% have been diagnosed with autism. The young people we work with have lost all trust in humans and are typically living very isolated lives. Our horses break down the barriers that young people put up because they react honestly to the emotions and behaviours that young people show. As prey animals 99% of a horse’s communications is via body language. This means they pick up on human emotions and mirror them in their own behaviour. A horse will run away from an angry young person, ignore an unsure young person, relax around a calm young person etc. Through working with these natural reactions the young people learn to identify and manage their emotions in order to build relationships with our horses. As young people learn to trust the horses they begin to rebuild trust in humans, starting with our staff and extending to the other education and mental health support professionals in other support organisations. This newfound trust along with the confidence and interpersonal skills developed with us enables young people to turn their lives around and re engage with education and society more generally.