By Jill Stocks
Set amid the beautiful countryside on the outskirts of Horsforth is an organisation that provides a very special kind of support to children and families.
Think Like A Pony is more than a riding school, providing a number of programmes for personal support and development through horsemanship.
The summer fayre held last Sunday was an opportunity to see what goes on at the stables through their various programmes working with children and families.
There were lots of activities and stalls at the fayre, raising vital funds for the project, as well as a chance to meet the ponies and to have a pony ride.
Lynne Henry is the founder and proprietor of Think Like A Pony and told us more about what they do there:
“We’re a riding school with a difference. We have three arms to what we do. Primarily we’re a mainstream riding school, we teach children holistic riding and how to build a relationship with a pony.
“From that we work with children with any kind of life adversities. It could be anything from youth criminal justice, children who’ve suffered life trauma, anorexia, it could be anything.”
“We work with children from ages seven to 21 and we teach them how to build that emotional resilience through that relationship with a pony. How to be able to settle their own emotions, and make more positive decisions and more positive life outcomes.
“We also have a family development programme which works with families who are in crisis or parents that are struggling with any kinds of problems to help to empower them, how to be able to build that cohesion within the family.”
The Horsforth stables are the flagship centre for the organisation; there is a newly built centre in the south west and an online club, all building on the bond that can be created between ponies and children to learn skills of communication, listening and empathy.
As well as the youth development programme and holistic riding school, there is the volunteer programme, giving adults and children over the age of 12 an opportunity to work alongside experienced staff to develop skills and build confidence, and the family development programme, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.
The project, which was founded over 20 years ago, also received the prestigious King’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2024. In the last year they have held nearly 2000 youth development sessions, held 4,400 riding school sessions and there were 191 beneficiaries from the family development programme.
- For more information on Think Like A Pony, how you could help or how they could help you, visit their website.
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