What is Equine-Assisted Therapy?

Equine means horse, Narrative Therapy is a particular type of counselling for people.

EANT has been developed by Horses for Hope over 15 years. Our therapy is ground based, which means there is no riding of horses.

You could say it is a counselling program for both people and horses, where they come together for the benefit of each other. It has been proven to work in helping both.  

• People come to us with hopes of overcoming the effects of problems in their lives and are seeking help for creating change and finding ways of achieving that. These troubles can include trauma, abuse, neglect, mental illness, addiction, learning and behavioural challenges or intellectual and/or physical disability.

• Horses come to us to learn how to overcome the effects of problems in their lives caused by trauma, abuse and neglect at the hands of humans.

We have highly skilled people, counsellors and horse practitioners at Horses for hope. The ‘people counselling’ sometimes happens in the conversations that take place while the horses are being helped by you (with our help of course). At other times we will have conversations about the experience of helping the horses and how it relates to your life and hopes.   

What are the benefits for both human and horse?

By the end of every program session we run, we want both the horse and the person to feel genuinely better about themselves.

• The horse feels better because the participant has enabled them to feel more safe and trusting than it did at the start of the session. The participant has made a difference to the horse because of what they provided in leadership (including strength without aggression), genuine calmness and kindness.

• The person because they have followed the instructions of the Horses for Hope team and controlled and managed their emotions and projected calmness trust and respect in a way that clearly enables the horse to respond to them and feel better, safer. With the right help from the Horses For Hope team, everyone can do this.

Do I need horse experience to participate?

Not at all. We will teach you about how horses think, and how to be safe when interacting with the horse.

How do you choose which horse I will work with?

For your first session, our team will pair you with a horse that is further through its recovery. We will carefully explain the backstory of the horse you will work with. If there is a fear of horses, we might pair you with our smallest and calmest pony Peanut! Each subsequent session will introduce you to a different horse and a different activity.

Can I bring someone?

Yes! We encourage you to bring a parent, guardian, family member(s), carer or support worker.

What to wear and what happens in bad weather?

You will need dress for being outside when working with the horses. The yard you will be working in is covered for shade and the cover keeps most rain out. But on stormy, rainy and windy days we may have to cancel sessions. Also once it gets very hot (about 38 degrees) it is not fair to the horses, you or our team to keep working outside. On a bad day when we can’t work with horses, you might like to come along anyway and have a chat anyway.

Can I volunteer?

Just like all charitable organizations that rely on community support, we need help in all sorts of ways.

Our Management Board is made up of volunteer members and from time to time we look to recruit new members for specific tasks. We rely on community funding support and are always looking for groups or individuals help with fundraising. If you have a project or campaign idea we would love to hear from you. 

We don’t need a lot of voluntary assistance with horse care, training or management because almost all the horse work is done with people who come to the program and these sessions are of course private.  The horses are paddocked in small herds on the farm, so they don’t live in stables or yards that need cleaning.