Small Strides CIC

03/11/2024

🐴🐴 VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES 🐴🐴

Can you spare 2 hours a week to volunteer for our organisation 🙏

We are currently looking for new volunteers to join our team. We have vacancies on the following days 👇

👉 Tuesday Morning & Evening (flexible times)
👉 Monday morning 8-10 and Evening 4pm - 6pm
👉 Saturday Morning 8am -10am
👉 Sunday evening (flexible)

This will include the following :

🐴 Horse Care/Yard Duties
Including ENRICHMENT activities with the horses.

The role will include all yard jobs and care of the horses. You will be lone working on the yard so must be competent. Induction Training given!

You will also be required to give the horses enrichment time, grooming, walks, playing games etc between client sessions.

The ideal candidate will be:
👉 18+ and drives due to location of stables, 👉 Empathetic with horses
👉 Kind and caring
👉 Able to lone work or in a team
👉 Self Motivated
👉 Natural horsemanship background would be amazing but not essential.

We are located between Bath and Bristol near lansdown/Wick area BS30

Please DM or email Jenny at
[email protected] for an application form.

02/11/2024

I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who applied for the facilitator position. Applications for this are now closed.

I will be going through all applications this coming week and will be in touch soon.

All the best ... Jenny

01/11/2024

We had the cat shed built last week and one of the clients helped move everything in there today and settle them in.

We are gonna add some shelves and other things for them to play with, but for now this is the perfect new home for them.

26/10/2024

We have an unexpected space available startibg November on Mondaya at 12.30-1.30pm on our 6 Week Therapeutic Horse Care Course  

🏫This Course has been developed for individuals who are struggling and finding challenges in educational settings, the community or at home.  We specialize in working with children on the autistic spectrum and with additional learning needs.  

🐎The program is based on traditional horse care, therapeutic, attuned horsemanship combined with experimental learning and Somatic coaching .

👨‍🏫Not only does this course teach valuable skills in working with and looking after horses it is also designed to support emotional regulation.

The way the course is designed each week will cover both practical and theory for children to learn. Learning new skills and having a safe environment to support success helps to boost confidence and build self-esteem.  

Those with poor concentration soon develop an improved focus when set different activities with the horses.  

Stress and anxiety can also be reduced as participants benefit from the social and emotional interactions with other individuals and also by forming a bond with their horse.

The program is split into 3 parts; Acedemic, Horse Care and Horse Handeling. Each part and its related sessions are aimed for participants to meet a range of outcomes.  

“I have been taking my 6 year old son to small strides for the last 3 weeks.. he has autism & concentrating difficulties but has a deep love of animals especially horses... after only 3 sessions he has progressed to being able to just cope with 30 mins to now a full hour session & is absolutely loving it!.... jenny is lovely.. very professional & extremely patient & I'm over the moon with my little boys progress so far!”

“Wow what can I say I have a boy age 11 ASD/ADHD/attachment disorder hasn't stepped foot in a classroom for a year and cannot be around other children.Second week on horse care course doing amazing and has done some written work. I take my hat off to you, words cannot describe how fab you are and the work you do with these children. Thank you.

25/10/2024

One of our clients finished sessions yesterday, after attending the past 3 years.

This was a massive step for him in deciding himself that it was a good time to finish. It came with struggles and difficult emotions. However, we were able to work through these so he could find peace in making his decision.

For his final session, we championed all his achievements during his time with the horses and put together a scrap book of memories. Including horse hair, lots of photos, and a horse show to accompany. I painted some pebbles for him as a keep sale to support him in his next chapter.

Here's the message he left to share with others:

"Small Strides is a safe place to go to when you are feeling down and to help you with your emotions and problems. It helped me a lot to feel better in myself believe in myself. I would definitely recommend to other children who are struggling as it is a good place to go to"

19/10/2024

NEW HOODIES HAVE ARRIVED !!

For those that have already ordered, they are at the yard ready to collect.

If you haven't already ordered your 10 YEARS OF SMALL STRIDES exclusive hoodie, then drop me a DM and we can place an order.

£30 each and a range of colours.

18/10/2024

A lovely morning with one of our clients, repotting plants, and having a general tidu up in the garden.

There are so many therapeutic benefits of gardening, some of these include:

Physical health
Gardening can improve mobility through gentle movement and exercise

Mental health
Gardening can improve mental health through a sense of purpose, hope, and achievement. It can also help reduce feelings of isolation and exclusion.

Social health
Gardening can provide opportunities to connect with others.

Education and training
Gardening can provide opportunities to learn new skills, which can increase confidence and self-fulfillment. 

We are excited to be creating a whiole new space here at the Small Strides HQ where we will be holding ecotherapy for clients who want to experience mental well-being in nature through gardening and growing veg. Im very excited to becputtjng the plans together for this behind the scenes.

11/10/2024

A lovely afternoon teaching Equine Massage for Horse Owners to one of my clients.

They have been attending sessions here a few years and have their own horse, which they ride and wanted to learn some new skills to help the.

It's really nice to be able to share my additional training and skills with clients to help support them with their own horses.

#

10/10/2024

Today is world Mental Health Day so I want to share with you how horses can help improve your Mental Health!

Being around horses is often an effective means of therapy for people struggling with mental illness. They provide opportunities to get outdoors and be in nature, which alone has its own positive therapeutic benefits as well as teaching people about responsibility.

Horses can be good for your mental health in a number of ways:

🙋🏼Getting in Touch With Your Feelings
While people struggling with mental illness might seem overly emotional, most of them struggle to identify or process their feelings. The emotions get stuck inside of them and they do not know how to get around them to move forward with their lives.

Equine therapy is a great way to get in touch with emotions. Horses are very sensitive animals and will react to emotions even when you do not realize you are exhibiting them. When a horse senses aggression, he will become obstinate, for example. If the horse is not performing they way you want him to, it can be a clue that he is reacting to your emotions.

Using the horse’s reactions to identifying your emotions can be one of the first steps in understanding and dealing with them. A horse will respond more favorably to being approached by someone who is open. When you understand and clear your own emotions, the reward will be a positive response from the horse.

🙋🏼Improving Communication Skills
Horses are excellent communicators even though they do not speak. They can develop relationships with other animals and people by expressing their needs and feelings through non-verbal cues. By understanding and reading a horses behavior you can tell how the horses is feeling I.e calm and relaxed in your presence or agitated and angry.

Recovering from mental illness usually requires improving communication skills. Mental illness forces people into isolation and their ability to communicate with others is not exercised. The first part of recovery can be spent reconnecting with yourself, but when you are ready, you need to learn how to build connections with others.

Being around or working with horses gives you an opportunity to practice receiving messages, one of the more difficult parts of communication for many people. Since the horse cannot speak, you have to observe its behavior and mannerisms to figure out what it needs. This is good practice for improving communication skills with people.

🙋‍♂️Overcoming Fears
Overcoming fear and building confidence are important parts of recovering from mental health issues. Problems such as addiction or depression leave people feeling hurt and vulnerable. Rebuilding self-confidence is one important element of regaining mental health and becoming resilient to future traumas.

Horses are big strong animals that incite fear in many people. Before getting to know their gentle nature, you might be concerned that the horse won’t like you or that you could get hurt working around it. Equine therapy involves safe situations in which to recognize your fears and confront them. When you realize how quickly you can overcome such fears, your confidence is increased to face other situations that make your fearful.

🙋‍♂️Building Trust
For many people suffering from mental illness, trust has been broken over and over again. Victims of trauma and abuse, whether at their own hand or someone else’s, can find it difficult to trust anyone. Sometimes one of the underlying issues is that they do not trust themselves and their own judgment.

Horses do not judge or manipulate. They are kind and straightforward creatures. Just being around a horse can help you begin to re-learn how to build trust.

Participating in certain focused activities like horse agility requires a deeper level of trust and the need increases as the handling skills become more developed. The horse has to trust that you will direct it carefully and not lead it into danger.

Once you see that you can develop the needed trust in a horse to have a safe relationship, you will realize that trust can be built. Trusting an animal much bigger and stronger than yourself shows you that you can develop trust in another person, as well.

"Small Strides is such a wonderful, magical place. Jenny and her horses make a huge difference to their clients both on a therapeutic level and in teaching practical horse care skills. My son has benefitted so much from his weekly sessions at Small Strides and I can't recommend it highly enough 🙂"

Here at Small Strides cic we recognise that being around horses has a number of benefits for mental health and emotional healing, as well as getting you outside in the fresh air and re-connecting with nature ❤️

02/10/2024

We are looking for a new practitioner to join our team starting in Jan 2025.

Job Description

Position Title: Equie Facilitated Learning Practioner

Location: Small Strides CIC
4 Acres, Beach, Bristol, BS30 6NP

Hours: 5 - 8 hrs per week

Pay: Depends on experience and will be discussed during interviews

Closing Date: October 31st 2024

More info and job spec: T. 07817997568 or
E. [email protected]

Application by CV and covering letter to [email protected]

Job Discription: Self Emplyed Equine Facilitated Learning Practitioner

👉 Running therapeutic interventions/sessions following the Small Strides model and programs, working primarily with neurodivergent children and those with SEN.

👉 Be competent in session planning to meet individuals' needs and goals and work towards desired outcomes.

👉 Experience working with neurodiverse children and adults.

👉 Must hold a recognised Equine Facilitated Qualification

👉 Experience working with horses using a natural and attuned approach (training will be given in this area) Animal welfare is at the forefront of our organisation.

👉 Trauma Informed.

👉 To ensure safety remains at the centre of the work with children and young people and all work is risk assessed.

👉 To promote the values and principles of Small Strides CIC.

👉 Be reliable and able to work both on your own and part of a diverse team.

👉 Work within and promote policies in relation to equal opportunities, safeguarding, and anti-discriminatory practice.

👉 Undertake any additional and appropriate functions/training as required

Please send all applications via email only FAO: Jenny.

#

21/09/2024

A massive THANK YOU to Richard and Liam at Good Wood Trees and Landscapes 👇 https://www.facebook.com/goodwoodtree

They took out all the old fencing, and cut back the overgrown hedge and put up a new post and rail for us.

Great work, really professional and reliable. I highly recommend their services.

21/09/2024

What a Lovely start back To the start of 2024/25 term. I missed the first 2 weeks as I was studying in France however, it was nice reconnecting with my clients this week and hearing where they are now, and what great progress they have made.

Everyone has settled in well to what they are doing, some on reduced school times tables, some home tutors, uni, work, or college and for 1 a huge change a moving into her own supported living placement.

As I sit and reflect, all of my current clients, stated off their journey with me in crisis. They were not in education, or if they were they were really struggling and this was causing huge anxiety and worries, but it just goes to show with the right environment and support great things can be achieved.

Im looking forward to the next year and supporting more young people and adults on their journey, through Equine Facilitated Learning, Counselling & Therapy.

16/09/2024

Hey all 👋

Im back from France this week so my sessions will resume as usual from Thursday.

I look forward to seeing both old and a few new clients then.

Jenny x

16/09/2024

Due to being away in France studying, I didn't get to put the order in before I left 🙈 that means you still have chance to get in on the order. If you get it over to me by Friday 😁

We are excited to say we have finally got round to putting togetget the design for Hoodies and shirts. They will have this on the back and our new logo on the front.

We are putting a order in at the end of the month.

If you would like to order a hoodie or a t-shirt please WhatsApp (07817997568) or email ([email protected]) me your orders. I will not accept any orders through Instagram or Facebook.

Hoodies £30 each
T SHIRTS £18

We have a range of sizes from children to adults.

We have the following colours: Navy, Green, Black, Grey.

When ordering please select your size and color.

Happy 10 year anniversary to us 🐴

19/08/2024

🐴🐴 VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES 🐴🐴

Can you spare 2 hours a week to volunteer for our organisation 🙏

We are currently looking for new volunteers to join our team. We have vacancies on the following days 👇

👉 Monday Evening 4pm - 6 pm
👉 Wednesday Evening 4pm - 6pm
👉 Thursday Evening 4pm - 6pm
👉 Saturday Evening 4pm - 6pm

We possibly have a few morning shifts available as well.

This will include the following :

🐴 Horse Care/Yard Duties
Mucking out, feeding, rug change, pooh picking, grroming.

Enrichment activities with the horses.

The role will include all yard jobs and care of the horses. You will be lone working on the yard so must be competent in working with horses.

Induction Training given!

You will also be required to give the horses enrichment time, grooming, walks, playing games etc between client sessions.

The ideal candidate will be:
👉 18+ and drives due to location of stables, 👉 Empathetic with horses
👉 Kind and caring
👉 Able to lone work or in a team
👉 Self Motivated
👉 Natural horsemanship background would be amazing but not essential.
👉 Previous horse experience in horse care and handelibg

We are located between Bath and Bristol near lansdown/Wick area BS30

Please DM or email Jenny at
[email protected] for an application form.

17/08/2024

A busy day today having a huge tidy up. De-weeding, along with relaying our path.

My back is killing me, but it's do worth it to seethe finished results..

Thank you to everyone who helped ❤️

09/08/2024

We are excited to say we have finally got round to putting togetget the design for Hoodies and shirts. They will have this on the back and our new logo on the front.

We are putting a order in at the end of the month.

If you would like to order a hoodie or a t-shirt please WhatsApp (07817997568) or email ([email protected]) me your orders. I will not accept any orders through Instagram or Facebook.

Hoodies £30 each
T SHIRTS £18

We have a range of sizes from children to adults.

We have the following colours: Navy, Green, Black, Grey.

When ordering please select your size and color.

Happy 10 year anniversary to us 🐴

01/08/2024

We are looking for an enthusiastic, motivated volunteer gardener to run our Small Strides CIC Garden Project.

If you have experience growing veg and gardening as well as working with young children then this is for you.

2-3 hours a week at our Therapeutic Horsemanship Centre situated between Bristol and Bath (BS30)

Please email Jenny at [email protected] if you are interested

Starting ASAP

27/07/2024

🐴🐴 VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES 🐴🐴

Can you spare 2 hours a week to volunteer for our organisation 🙏

We are currently looking for new volunteers to join our team. We have vacancies on the following days 👇

👉 Monday Evening 4pm - 6 pm
👉 Wednesday Evening 4pm - 6pm
👉 Thursday Evening 4pm - 6pm
👉 Saturday Evening 4pm - 6pm

This will include the following :

🐴 Horse Care/Yard Duties

Including ENRICHMENT activities with the horses.

The role will include all yard jobs and care of the horses. You will be lone working on the yard so must be competent in working with horses.

Induction Training given!

You will also be required to give the horses enrichment time, grooming, walks, playing games etc between client sessions.

The ideal candidate will be:
👉 18+ and drives due to location of stables, 👉 Empathetic with horses
👉 Kind and caring
👉 Able to lone work or in a team
👉 Self Motivated
👉 Natural horsemanship background would be amazing but not essential.

We are located between Bath and Bristol near lansdown/Wick area BS30

Please DM or email Jenny at
[email protected] for an application form.

24/07/2024

We have 2 spaces left now over the Summer for some of our Explore sessions.

We have the following availability 👇

Wednesday 31st July
10am

Wednesday 28th August
10am

These are 1 hour sessions aimed at clients wanting to Explore our services. Weather you are considering joining our services or you just want a 1 off sessions to experience the great work we do here, either way you are welcome.

Expect to do a little of some of the great things we offer condensed into one hour, and get to explore what we are about here at Small Strides.

We follow a natural, attuned approach to horsemanship and connected relationships are at the heart of our work.

We have a passion for working with neurodivergent & SEN children, and our longer term programs weave into our work with the horses ways to help children and adults; support emotional regulation, reduce stress and anxiety, improve confidence and self esteem, develop a deeper sesnse of self awareness, improve social connections all while having fun and learning new skills.

No riding is involved and no previous experience with horses is required.

£50 per hour.

We have the following availability 👇

Please contact Jenny at [email protected] to book.

22/07/2024

What a lovely day facilitating the Mental Well-being with Horse's day.

I just want to say a huge THANK YOU to the for funding this. These sessions have been invaluable and highly needed in the community.

Some feedback from the day 👇

"A great day that helped me relax and connect with other women who understood my struggles and felt supported. I've also come away with tools I can use in everyday life."

" Today exceeded my expectations. I feel I have been able to release some tension and emotion I've been holding on to. I enjoyed the hands-on time with the horsees and found it very therapeutic. "

"Today has benefited me a lot. Having time for myself and meeting others has helped me feel a lot less anxious as well as being in nature with the horses I would highly recommend small strides to others."

13/07/2024

We have availability over the Summer for some of our Explore sessions.

These are 1 hour sessions aimed at clients wanting to Explore our services. Weather you are considering joining our services or you just want a 1 off sessions to experience the great work we do here, either way you are welcome.

Expect to do a little of some of the great things we offer condensed into one hour, and get to explore what we are about here at Small Strides.

We follow a natural, attuned approach to horsemanship and connected relationships are at the heart of our work.

We have a passion for working with neurodivergent & SEN children, and our longer term programs weave into our work with the horses ways to help children and adults; support emotional regulation, reduce stress and anxiety, improve confidence and self esteem, develop a deeper sesnse of self awareness, improve social connections all while having fun and learning new skills.

No riding is involved and no previous experience with horses is required.

£50 per hour.

We have the following availability 👇

Wednesday 31st July
10am and 12.30pm

Wednesday 21st August
12.30pm

Wednesday 28th August
10am

Please contact Jenny at [email protected] to book.

09/07/2024

We have 3 spaces available on our fully funded
Improving Mental Well-being with Horse's in Nature day.

Monday 22nd July 9.30am-2.30pm.

We put so much work into helping children, but time after time see the parents really struggling. This is why we partnerd with the to offer funded sessions to help parents who are wanting to improve their mental wellbeing with horses in nature.

Attending to our own Mental Well-being to best help our children and young people is so important. When we are feeling good we can show up best for them.

We are pleased to announce we have secured funding to run some sessions to help parents who are wanting to improve their mental wellbeing with horses in nature.

We have 3 spaces available.

This program aims to address mental health wellbeing challenges with parents, giving them a safe supportive space to interact with other parents, connect with horses in nature, practice mindfulness, somatic body work, develop new skills with horses, as well as learning some powerful self help techniques to support self regulation and help with mental wellbeing.

The outcomes fromthese sessions will be:

🩵 Reduced stress
🩵 Reduced anxiety
🩵 Build connected relationships with other
and the horses to help break the feelings of
isolation and help with healing trauma
🩵 Increased confidence and self-esteem
🩵 An understanding of bottom up regulationand why this is key in building the windowof tolerance
🩵 Learn powerful self help techniques to take
away to help with emotional regulation for you and your children
🩵 A safe space in nature and with horses toimprove mental, emotional and physical
well being

MONDAY 22ND JULY 9.30AM - 2.30 PM

If you are interested in booking one of our FREE spaces please email Jenny at

[email protected]

09/07/2024

We still have 1 Saturday space available 11am-12pm.

Please email Jenny at [email protected]

We are pleased to announce, we have some availability from July onwards on our Therapeutic Horse Care Courses for Under 12s.

6 Week Therapeutic Horse Care Course

🏫This Course has been developed for individuals who are struggling and finding challenges in educational settings, the community or at home. We specialize in working with neurodivergent children and those with additional learning needs.

🐎The program is based on traditional horse care, attuned horsemanship combined with experimental learning and therapeutic interventions.

👨‍🏫Not only does this course teach valuable skills in working with and looking after horses it is also designed to support emotional regulation.

The way the course is designed each week will cover both practical and theory for children to learn. Learning new skills and having a safe environment to support success helps to boost confidence and build self-esteem.

Those with poor concentration soon develop an improved focus when set different activities with the horses.

Stress and anxiety can also be reduced as participants benefit from the social and emotional interactions with other individuals and also by forming a bond with their horse.

The Small Strides Therapeutic Horse Care course has been structured to help learners progress in a range of different areas.

The program is split into 3 parts; Acedemic, Horse Care and Horse Handeling. Each part and its related sessions are aimed for participants to meet a range of outcomes.

“I have been taking my 6 year old son to small strides for the last 3 weeks.. he has autism & concentrating difficulties but has a deep love of animals especially horses... after only 3 sessions he has progressed to being able to just cope with 30 mins to now a full hour session & is absolutely loving it!.... jenny is lovely.. very professional & extremely patient & I'm over the moon with my little boys progress so far!”

“Wow what can I say I have a boy age 11 ASD/ADHD/attachment disorder hasn't stepped foot in a classroom for a year and cannot be around other children.Second week on horse care course doing amazing and has done some written work. I take my hat off to you, words