Former racehorses are teaching children life skills through an equine-assisted learning program called Horse Sense.
The initiative, supported by the new Off the Track WA Community Fund, is run by Horse Sense founder Claire Wright, a primary school teacher and equine facilitated learning practitioner who was inspired by her own experience.
“I’ve loved horses ever since I can remember but could never own one as a child. When I got my first job, I bought a gelding who had retired from racing,” Claire said.
“Over the years, that horse taught me incredible lessons about relationships, resilience and life.”
Claire and her husband are both licensed racing participants and now have about 50 retired racehorses on their farm. Some are horses they raced, others weren’t suited to racing or found a home with them after leaving the track.
Working with a South West school, Claire holds small group sessions to give students horse experiences which develop into skills and strategies to navigate life’s challenges.
The activities are about engagement and learning, rather than riding, so the age and ability of the horses is irrelevant.
“The sessions focus on what the horses can teach us, not what we can make the horses do,” Claire said.
“We value horses living naturally because our sessions are based on participants becoming familiar with natural herd interaction to learn about self awareness and strategies to approach life for more positive experiences.
“Many of the children have had nothing to do with horses before and it’s lovely to see how they connect with the horses, big and small, in the paddock.
“They’ve been meeting the herd, looking at how it’s regulated and what keeps the horses calm. They learn to maintain a calm state and stay present and aware of their surroundings so they can choose how to respond rather than reacting to situations.
“We’ll do grooming activities, learning how a horse’s body language communicates what they like and don’t like and how we can respect that.
“Each week has a different theme which links to their work with the horses and each session ends with a check-in and card on what they learned.”
The effectiveness of the seven-week program will be based on feedback from parents, staff and students.
