EQUINE ASSISTED LEARNING

This is our traditional service and has been offered at this site for almost 10 years. It’s made a big difference for many individuals within our community and is provided with the highest level of excellence. With this service, we ensure all individuals are comfortable, safe and understand how this process works. Equine assisted learning is 1.5 hourly sessions working in partnership with a horse on the ground. A horsemanship practitioner will facilitate activities between you and your horse, enabling new experiences and learning opportunities. You will gain personal desired skills to help reach your future goals. These sessions will be run over a six-week period to ensure maximum potential for lasting positive change.

WITH Gobaith is a place where people of all ages come to spend time with horses and benefit from therapeutic services in the countryside. If you’ve been invited to attend, it means that you or someone in your life thinks that this might be just the thing for you. Maybe you need a bit of support with your behaviour, your confidence or something else. Maybe you’re going through a challenging time right now and just need someone to talk to or maybe you just need a to process things. Whoever you are, we are here to help.

Why Horses?

“There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”

-Winston Churchill

Horses are excellent teachers. Their reactions are always honest and they never lie. If we are angry, they move away from us; if we are calm, they relax. Training a horse can help us to learn about ourselves, showing our strengths and areas for improvement. It can help us learn to communicate clearly, listen properly, work as a team and form a friendship based on trust and respect. These are all skills that might help at home or at school.

Your first session

Your first session is an assessment session. This is a chance for us to get to know you better and decide what kind of horse you might work well with. More importantly, it’s also a chance for you to decide if EFL is right for you. During your assessment session, we’ll show you around the farm, introduce you to the horses and talk you through a few simple rules that will help to keep you safe and show you how to behave around horses. We’ll also ask you to put on a helmet to protect your head. All our helmets are lightweight and you won’t be allowed near a horse without one.

You’ll then go and meet a horse and learn how to groom it and, if there’s time, maybe do a few simple leading exercises like asking the horses to stop, go and turn. Don’t worry if you don’t know how, you’ll have two qualified staff members with you all the time who will teach you everything you need to know! During the assessment session, we’ll chat to you and ask you a few simple questions. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to but remember that every bit of information helps us to match you with a horse who will be perfect for you.

At the end of your time with the horse, we’ll help you to set some goals for yourself. These can be anything you want! Whatever they are, we’ll try and help you progress towards achieving them during your time at With Gobaith C.I.C.

If you, your family and the staff decide that EFL is right for you, we’ll continue with a full course of sessions. If it isn’t, you don’t have to have any further sessions. Some reasons why you might not have a full course of sessions include:

You might be allergic to or not like horses
You might not be able to behave safely around horses
You might not feel ready right now but want to try again in the future.

What next?

If you’re offered a full course of sessions, you’ll work with a horse once a week for an hour each time. It might be the same horse you had for your assessment session or it might be a different one. We try to match everyone with a horse that suits their personality and the goals they’re working towards. If you’re confident, we might match you with a cheeky horse that will challenge you. If you’re quiet and shy, we might give you a kind, calm horse that will take good care of you.

As you work with your horse each week, you’ll discover talents that you didn’t even know you had. You might be an excellent leader or great at solving problems. Horses are also good at reflecting areas we need to change. You might learn you need to speak more clearly, be calmer or believe in yourself more. Most participants find that as they learn to communicate better, listen more carefully and work more in harmony with their horse, they also communicate, listen and work as a team better at home, school or work.

As you only have six sessions to work with our horses, it’s really important that you attend every session and that you arrive on time. If you are going to miss a session, or be very late, please make sure someone lets us know as soon as possible. Unfortunately, if you are late or miss a session, we won’t be able to give you that time back so you’ll have less time to work with the horses.

At the end of your course of sessions, we will write a progression report about your time at With Gobaith. This will be shared with the person who referred you to our services and they can share it with you and your family.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How long does a session take?
A. session lasts for one hour, once a week.

Q. How many sessions will I need?

A. Equine-Facilitated Learning (EFL) a short-term intervention. A course of six sessions are provided. Upon evaluation, we can extend a course of sessions if necessary.

Q. Will I learn to ride?

A. No. All EFL sessions take place on the ground and the focus is on learning to communicate and interact with horses. Setting personal goals and working towards them in partnership with a therapy horse. There is no riding involved.

Q. What if I have to cancel?

A. If you cannot attend your session for any reason, please let us know as soon as possible. Each participant is only given 6 weeks to complete their 6 sessions. Therefore, if you cancel a session, you will not receive your full course.

Q. What happens in bad weather?

A. We have an indoor arena so will be able to work inside. Sometimes if the weather is very extreme we might have to cancel sessions but we will give you as much notice as possible and make sure you get that session at another time.

Q. Do you provide transport?

A. No. It is your responsibility to arrange transport to and from our centre.

Q. What should I wear?

A. Please wear old clothes as they may get dirty and a warm, waterproof coat and gloves are essential in bad weather. Close-toed, flat shoes also MUST be worn. All safety equipment is provided. You can wear your own riding hat, if you have one, as long as it fits correctly and conforms with current safety standards.

Q. Can we feed the horses?

A. We have a strict NO FEEDING rule as some of our horses have allergies and can become very ill from eating certain foods. This includes feeding grass and other plants. Feeding by hand can also encourage horses to ‘mug’ people for treats and we do not want to encourage this kind of behaviour.

Q. My friend/sibling really likes horses. Can I bring them along to watch too?

A.To get the most out of your sessions, it is essential that you feel comfortable and safe. If you need moral support, it is fine to have a parent or friend nearby. However, for reasons of privacy and safety we generally ask friends and family to stay in the waiting room. In some circumstances, parents, carers or friends can come into the working area but they will need to be fitted with a helmet and briefed about how to act safely around horses.

Coed Y Llyn, Treflys, Porthmadog, LL49 9YL

Equine Assisted Learning: About