Here I am seeing a horse safely into the training arena- note the trusty Notepad sticking out of my back pocket!
Friday 1 July 2011
On the Job
Here I am seeing a horse safely into the training arena- note the trusty Notepad sticking out of my back pocket!
First encounters of the Horse Kind
I would never before have considered horses a means of therapy. To me, riding was an exclusive activity for the incredibly wealthy- the sort of hobby only undertaken by impossibly thin blonde girls, with UGG boots and double-barrelled surnames. It was in a state of confusion, then, that I approached my first experience with the Ride High charity, a project based in Milton Keynes that works on rehabilitating disadvantaged children into society, which was set up by Rachel Medill in 2009. Through learning to ride and care for the horses, and related clubroom projects, the children and young adults learn to rebuild social skills, work as a team, and develop aspects of their personality they would previously have had no outlet for. I travelled down to the Ride High centre for two days to experience how this charity operated, and to get to know some of the people they catered for.
By the time the children were arriving for their weekly two hour-session I was in a state of slight trepidation. I had been hearing phrases like ‘exceptionally difficult backgrounds’, and ‘highly disadvantaged upbringings’ all afternoon, and my subconscious had conjured up a vague image of hulking figures in baseball caps and hoodies, concealing switchblades, cigarettes and graffiti cans. What if one of them lunged at me? Alison, the project manager for Ride High, and the two volunteers Sarah and Emily seemed entirely unconcerned, chatting amongst themselves as they waited for their charges to arrive; the children are transported to and from their homes by the Ride High minibus. A few minutes later the vehicle drew up, and as I looked up I was confronted by a beautiful young girl bounding into the clubroom with a huge smile on her face, followed by a gaggle of chattering children, who ignored me completely as they made themselves comfortable. Four girls and a boy- this was it? This was the mob? They didn’t look all that threatening to me. Once they were seated, Alison introduced me, and I told them a little about myself, and why I was at the charity. They responded to me with a lively interest and enthusiasm, and then went round the circle introducing themselves. I was confused; I had expected a sullen and unresponsive group of adolescents, not these bright, confident young people.
Watching the group interacting with their horses during the hour they spent riding was fascinating to me. They handled the hulking animals with a quiet assurance, and interacted easily with the stable instructor managing their lesson. Imogen, a fourteen-year-old who handled ‘Sherlock’- the largest horse in the group- couldn’t hold back her enthusiasm, and beamed at us every time she passed the corner where she sat, calling out to us and laughing. These were animals that I had no idea how to approach, but the confidence of the children and their sense of pride in the horses was palpable. I couldn’t take my eyes off thirteen-year old Megan. As she rode, she sat bold upright, head erect and eyes focused into the middle distance. Her sense of concentration was so strong that she seemed detached from every other member of the group, including the instructor, her communication taking place solely with the horse, who appeared to obey her through sheer force of will. I learned later that the other people in the group called her the ‘Horse Whisperer’.
After spending an hour walking, trotting, and bringing the horses to a canter, the children returned to the clubroom where I had some time to talk to them about Ride High in smaller groups. All of them pitched into the conversation with great enthusiasm, offering up opinions and their ideas about themselves and the charity. Most of them had been attending Ride High for between one and two years.
“It’s great working with the horses,” Fourteen year-old Catherine said, “but it’s also about making new friends and people who are like us…”
The group have all achieved a nationally recognised ABRS (Association of British Riding Schools) qualification in stable management and equine skills, and most of them agreed that they would like to work with horses in later life when I asked them. Fifteen-year old Matthew, who had been deemed ‘unemployable’ before he began attending Ride High, is now hoping to apply to Moulton College in Northampton to do Equine Studies, and the project manager is confident that he will be offered a place there. Matthew came to Ride High with his school in September 2009, and then returned as a long-term member in April 2010 alongside Megan. When he began at Ride High, he was highly uncommunicative, wouldn’t interact with people, and displayed signs of autism. He had demonstrated both verbally and physically aggressive behaviour in his first weeks at Ride High. Two years later, as I spoke to him, he was responsive and relaxed, volunteering information about himself, and commenting that his horse, Elvis, had hurt his leg while on a canter. Confronted with him, I found an amiable and approachable young man, with a distinctly dry sense of humour- but after the session had ended, Alison explained that it was a sign of the enormous amount of progress he had made that he had spoken to me at all. Sarah commented that it had taken six weeks for him to even acknowledge her presence when she first came to the charity. And Matthew is not the only member of the group that has been so changed by his experiences.
“I wouldn’t ever talk to new people before I came here,” Ellie, aged fifteen, commented, when I asked how Ride High had helped her, before going on to tell me stories about the charity trips out to the Badminton Horse Trials, and the Horse of the Year show. If she hadn’t made this statement I would have had no idea she’d ever struggled with talking to strangers. Equally, I found all of the children in the group to be responsive, interested and unique individuals, who I found fascinating to talk to. In the everyday world these young people are sidelined and disregarded- most of them have been excluded from mainstream education, and are labelled as ‘underachievers’. Through Ride High they are provided with a safe environment where they can express themselves and develop as persons without any negative stigmas against them, where they are able to behave like kids, instead of the adults the wider world demands that they be.
I arrived at Ride High uncertain about how horses could be employed to make a difference to the lives of disadvantaged young adults. I left a complete convert, with every conviction that this is a life changing organisation- one that will hopefully continue to alter lives for years to come.
By the time the children were arriving for their weekly two hour-session I was in a state of slight trepidation. I had been hearing phrases like ‘exceptionally difficult backgrounds’, and ‘highly disadvantaged upbringings’ all afternoon, and my subconscious had conjured up a vague image of hulking figures in baseball caps and hoodies, concealing switchblades, cigarettes and graffiti cans. What if one of them lunged at me? Alison, the project manager for Ride High, and the two volunteers Sarah and Emily seemed entirely unconcerned, chatting amongst themselves as they waited for their charges to arrive; the children are transported to and from their homes by the Ride High minibus. A few minutes later the vehicle drew up, and as I looked up I was confronted by a beautiful young girl bounding into the clubroom with a huge smile on her face, followed by a gaggle of chattering children, who ignored me completely as they made themselves comfortable. Four girls and a boy- this was it? This was the mob? They didn’t look all that threatening to me. Once they were seated, Alison introduced me, and I told them a little about myself, and why I was at the charity. They responded to me with a lively interest and enthusiasm, and then went round the circle introducing themselves. I was confused; I had expected a sullen and unresponsive group of adolescents, not these bright, confident young people.
Watching the group interacting with their horses during the hour they spent riding was fascinating to me. They handled the hulking animals with a quiet assurance, and interacted easily with the stable instructor managing their lesson. Imogen, a fourteen-year-old who handled ‘Sherlock’- the largest horse in the group- couldn’t hold back her enthusiasm, and beamed at us every time she passed the corner where she sat, calling out to us and laughing. These were animals that I had no idea how to approach, but the confidence of the children and their sense of pride in the horses was palpable. I couldn’t take my eyes off thirteen-year old Megan. As she rode, she sat bold upright, head erect and eyes focused into the middle distance. Her sense of concentration was so strong that she seemed detached from every other member of the group, including the instructor, her communication taking place solely with the horse, who appeared to obey her through sheer force of will. I learned later that the other people in the group called her the ‘Horse Whisperer’.
After spending an hour walking, trotting, and bringing the horses to a canter, the children returned to the clubroom where I had some time to talk to them about Ride High in smaller groups. All of them pitched into the conversation with great enthusiasm, offering up opinions and their ideas about themselves and the charity. Most of them had been attending Ride High for between one and two years.
“It’s great working with the horses,” Fourteen year-old Catherine said, “but it’s also about making new friends and people who are like us…”
The group have all achieved a nationally recognised ABRS (Association of British Riding Schools) qualification in stable management and equine skills, and most of them agreed that they would like to work with horses in later life when I asked them. Fifteen-year old Matthew, who had been deemed ‘unemployable’ before he began attending Ride High, is now hoping to apply to Moulton College in Northampton to do Equine Studies, and the project manager is confident that he will be offered a place there. Matthew came to Ride High with his school in September 2009, and then returned as a long-term member in April 2010 alongside Megan. When he began at Ride High, he was highly uncommunicative, wouldn’t interact with people, and displayed signs of autism. He had demonstrated both verbally and physically aggressive behaviour in his first weeks at Ride High. Two years later, as I spoke to him, he was responsive and relaxed, volunteering information about himself, and commenting that his horse, Elvis, had hurt his leg while on a canter. Confronted with him, I found an amiable and approachable young man, with a distinctly dry sense of humour- but after the session had ended, Alison explained that it was a sign of the enormous amount of progress he had made that he had spoken to me at all. Sarah commented that it had taken six weeks for him to even acknowledge her presence when she first came to the charity. And Matthew is not the only member of the group that has been so changed by his experiences.
“I wouldn’t ever talk to new people before I came here,” Ellie, aged fifteen, commented, when I asked how Ride High had helped her, before going on to tell me stories about the charity trips out to the Badminton Horse Trials, and the Horse of the Year show. If she hadn’t made this statement I would have had no idea she’d ever struggled with talking to strangers. Equally, I found all of the children in the group to be responsive, interested and unique individuals, who I found fascinating to talk to. In the everyday world these young people are sidelined and disregarded- most of them have been excluded from mainstream education, and are labelled as ‘underachievers’. Through Ride High they are provided with a safe environment where they can express themselves and develop as persons without any negative stigmas against them, where they are able to behave like kids, instead of the adults the wider world demands that they be.
I arrived at Ride High uncertain about how horses could be employed to make a difference to the lives of disadvantaged young adults. I left a complete convert, with every conviction that this is a life changing organisation- one that will hopefully continue to alter lives for years to come.
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