Riding scheme teaches valuable skills

Published date16 March 2022
Horses Helping Humans Taranaki, Hōiho Hāpai Hapori is a licensee of the Horses Helping Humans programme developed by Sue Spence in 2006

Lead facilitator Laura Menzies says the programme uses a trauma-informed approach to teach body awareness by pairing a young person with a facilitator and a horse.

“By interacting with the horse, young people learn how to adjust their body language and breathing to regulate their emotions, improving their assertive communication skills and self-confidence.”

Facilitators work with individuals or groups of up to four, host whānau and team-building workshops, and offer staff training for professionals who work with teenagers.

“We work with a lot of people.”

The programme started in March 2020, said Laura.

“We purchased the licence to run the programme for the Taranaki region. We had our first pilot in March and then other sessions in May and June with S.T.A.R.T Taranaki clients and staff.”

In 2021, with support from the Toi Foundation, Lottery Taranaki Committee, and the New Plymouth District Council, Horses Helping Humans Taranaki, Hōiho Hāpai Hapori was able to offer 48 funded placements for youth agencies and schools across Taranaki.

“In total last year, we worked with 75 clients. We worked with agencies such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of Taranaki, YMCA, Stratford Teen Parent Unit, Oranga Tamariki, S.T.A.R.T Taranaki, and Tui Ora.

“The schools we worked with were Stratford, Hāwera, Inglewood and New Plymouth Girls’ High Schools as well as Coastal Taranaki School, Spotswood and Francis Douglas Memorial College.”

Laura says Te Ao Māori was incorporated into the programme to make it more relatable for Aotearoa’s taiohi (teenagers).

The flow of the programme intentionally aligns with a pōwhiri, and the programme itself has an optional additional component called Te Ara Whakamana which is “a circular framework that uses the Māori creation story, colour, imagery, narrative and cultural metaphors”.

“We then incorporate the Atua [gods] from the Te Ara Whakamana model into the programme. For example, we channel feeling like Rongo-mā-Tāne [the protector of crops and also the god of peace] when we are interacting with the horses.”

She says specific horsemanship exercises that involve no riding are used to teach taiohi how they can adjust their breathing and their body language to keep themselves calm, improve their assertive communication skills and enable them to make good decisions when under pressure.

“Taiohi also learn about...

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