What is Equine Assisted Learning?

EAL is a unique approach to experiential learning where clients are offered safe experiences with horses, under the facilitation of a qualified practitioner, to assist them in reaching their individual learning goals. These may include personal development for children and adults or professional development goals. These can include social-emotional skills building, mental health and resilience, developing life skills, and organisational and work-related skills such as leadership, effective communication, and teamwork.

Ali and Greg combine their training as Equine Assisted Learning Practitioners with 40+ combined years of leadership experience to deliver unique individual and group experiences tailored to each client and their needs.

What it is not.

We are not a horse riding school or a Riding for the Disabled facility. While Horse Wisdom is incorporated into the facilitation process, these are not horsemanship classes. All sessions are ground-based, not ridden, and everything for the clients and the horses is invitational. No prior horse experience is required.

Horses are beautiful, intelligent, sensitive beings who have much to offer and teach humans. Being prey animals, they have a naturally sensitive, hyper-vigilant nature and are highly attuned to their surroundings – their survival depends on it! Because of this, horses support us in being present and aware of our own experience. They model authenticity – expressing exactly what they are feeling or experiencing – and in doing so offer honest feedback to us without judgement.

With one of the largest energy fields of any animal, horses are masters of emotions and will know what you are feeling long before you make physical contact with them, even if you are not consciously aware of those emotions yourself. Horses do not fear emotions; they are, however, very wary if there is incongruence between the emotions and the external behaviour. They can help us tune into and acknowledge our true feelings, when perhaps we are more used to suppressing, ignoring, and pretending everything is ok. Only then can we listen to the wisdom of our own bodies, and use those feelings as information to guide us in our choices.

Horses support us to be truly ourselves, and offer corrective emotional experiences in relationship, fostering acceptance and opportunities to develop relational skills. When horses’ needs are met, and provided they have not been damaged by the (intentional or unintentional) mistreatment of humans, they offer a great deal of Horse Wisdom through modelling awareness, boundaries, freedom of expression, managing feelings as information, the strength of sensitivity and clear communication free of judgement.

With the support of a practitioner, these observations and experiences can help clients develop their own skills and capacities in these same areas. As herd animals, horses require clear and congruent leadership. In addition to building their individual skills and emotional intelligence, leaders can explore leading ‘from up front’, ‘shoulder to shoulder, or ‘motivating from behind’.

Every request we make of our herd in these sessions is invitational. Our horses have a voice, and just like our clients, their voice is respected.

Helping Hooves Fell Timber follows the seven Principles of Practice of the EPI Model, which ensures professionalism, safety and ethics in all our work:

1.  Relationship. Sessions focus on the horse-client-practitioner relationship as the container and medium for change. Equine experiences are relationally offered. The model rests on the therapeutic belief and research indicator that it is the 'relationship that heals'.

2.  Holistic Practice. The approach works across all layers of human experience and functioning, and is processed by the practitioner across all layers of human experience, including somatic (body), feeling (affect), cognitive, behavioural and relational experience.

3.  Ethics. The approach is an integrated and ethically driven model, where values and ethics that guide practitioners are drawn from the APS (Psychologist ethics), AASW (Social Work ethics), Eco-psychology and Animal Welfare Ethics.

4.  Theory of Change. The theory of change is drawn from a coherent and comprehensive system of psychological and psychotherapeutic theory and practice. It is explicitly taught to practitioners, and guides the focus of sessions for effective outcomes.

5.  Horse Wisdom Psycho-Education. The model teaches students and clients life lessons from horses. Horse Wisdom psycho-education is integrated into this model of therapy and learning, and thus incorporates a unique educational approach. Importantly, the horses participate in sessions in a unique way governed by the I-Thou Horse-person-ship approach, created by Institute founder, Meggin Kirby.

6.  Specialist Trained Practitioners. All EAP and EAL practitioners are trained in 3 specialist fields - change processes in psychotherapy and experiential learning, equine studies and horsemanship, and, the unique horse-human dynamic in EAP and EAL. EPI Foundation Practitioner training includes 124 hours of training and supervision, and additional final assessment processes. EPI Advanced training includes 220 hours of training and assessment.

7.  Personal Work and Professional Growth. EPI practitioners are committed to their personal growth and professional growth as the foundation for ethical and professional practice. Practitioners begin deep personal work in the training and commit to ongoing personal therapy to keep their work safe and effective for their clients, and to ensure congruence of the work.

Copyright 2020 The Equine Psychotherapy Institute

For more information on the Equine Psychotherapy Institute and the EPI Model, please visit their webpage: www.equinepsychotherapy.net.au