Welcome to Equine Connections

Offering a range of individual, group and team-building workshops through ​Equine Assisted Learning programmes.
​At Equine Connections, we provide learning opportunities with horses, offering a supportive learning environment for sustainable change and improved quality of life and relationships.

What is EAL?

Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) is an experiential learning and personal development approach suitable for children, adolescents, and adults. Clients participate in individual or group sessions in partnership with horses to experiment with new ways of being, thinking and behaving.

At Equine Connections, we run a variety of programmes to address needs in social and emotional learning, personal development, leadership and team building. Participants can expect to take part in relationship-based learning activities with horses to develop essential life skills such as self-awareness, boundary setting, understanding feelings, forming healthy relationships and managing challenge. 
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All activities are ground-based. There is no riding involved.

​Research tells us that people learn best by doing and that change occurs when we are open to new experiences and shifts in thinking.
Participants will gain more insight into their own behaviour patterns and non-verbal communication default settings based on the horse's responses. With the horses' help, learners can explore new ways of being in relationship with others and themselves.
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One question lot's of people ask is, 'Who can benefit from Equine Assisted Learning?'. The answer is, 'Everybody'. EAL is so versatile that it can cater to the needs of people of all ages and backgrounds. Clients set their own learning goals so really, the possibilities are endless!

Why Horses?

Horses are fantastic partners for learning in an experiential context for a multitude of reasons.

Horses are prey animals and therefore have a heightened awareness of themselves within the context of their environment. Unlike humans, horses live within themselves, in the present moment with complete awareness, and balance their internal equilibrium by way of physical actions as they need to. Horses are also herd animals and as such live in constant connection and relationship with others. 
The herd is socially organized, negotiated by non-verbal communication and clear boundary setting. These two qualities allow us to receive immediate and honest responses to our behaviour and emotions. Horses don’t know how to be anything other than authentic and as such will always give us a ‘true reading’ that is non-judgemental.

​Horses see us for what we are. How popular we are, how much money we earn, or how well we read or write is irrelevant to horses. Their inability to judge makes the horse a powerful partner for development as learners are able to lower inhibitions and commit fully to the power of the experience.

Horses demonstrate various leadership styles which are open for clients to experiment with. Leadership experiences with the horses could include leading from the front, side by side, or leading and motivating from behind.

For many people, just being with horses is a grounding and calming experience. Others may experience heightened awareness due to the size and strength of a horse. Others yet may be in awe of their beauty, agility and grace.

Regardless, horses seem to evoke strong feelings in people who then give us fodder for somatic awareness, a key objective for learning at Equine Connections.
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Equine Connections invite you to come to meet the herd and experience a life-changing learning programme. ​