Pony Pals Lakeland

12/03/2025

Farewell Geegar. 🧡🧡🧡🧡

Geegar was a fair old age and was begining to show signs that it was his time to go over the rainbow bridge.

He was a special little pony who was full of charecter. Many of our visitors adored him.

His final days were spent back at home with his family who loved him dearly, grazing in the sunshine with his best friend Daisy and new little friend Bonny.

We will never forget this special little pony.

Rest in peace beautiful boy.

11/03/2025

New to 2025 Mother's day pony pamper.

Spend some quality time with your mum this mother's day interacting with our beautiful kind ponies.

Suitable for all ages and abilities.

Location Egremont Cumbria.

These sessions are inclusive to all.

We have visitors with and without disabilities on a regular basis as our ponies are equine facilitated therapy ponies.

We work regularly with individuals with SEND, Anxiety, PTSD and other conditions.

A number of individuals with Alzheimer's disease have visited us and really enjoyed their time here.

Experience:
♡ Family bonding.
♡ Reduce stress.
♡ Reduce anxiety.
♡ Learn new skills
♡ Social interaction.
♡ Animal therapy

Sessions include:
♡Half hour private family session.
♡Meeting our therapy ponies.
♡Grooming/brushing interaction with our ponies.

Message us to book your slot, availability below.

SUNDAY 30th march 2025

10am- available
10.45- available
11.15- ❌
12.30pm- available

Payment upon booking to secure places.

11/03/2025

11/03/2025

"𝙰𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏𝚏 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚍𝚒𝚍?"

I hear the tone of misunderstanding and see the judgment in their eyes. Then I notice it again - the usual assumption that I’m failing to discipline my child.

But what they don’t see is that my child isn’t 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 this.

They don’t see the panic in her eyes, the way her body is hijacked by a meltdown she cannot control. They don’t see the way I position myself, not to punish, but to 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙩 - to stop her from hurting herself, her sibling or anyone else.

They don’t see that I am dealing with it. Just not in the way they expect.

Because PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) means that punishment, consequences, or even the slightest demand will only escalate things further.

My priority is to 𝙙𝙚-𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚, to contain the situation, to get us all through the storm safely.

And later, when the storm has passed, when she’s regulated, when her brain is no longer in fight-or-flight, that’s when we can talk.

That’s when 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 can happen.

It’s heartbreaking to watch your child struggle like this. To see them lash out when they’re overwhelmed. To comfort one child while the other is hurting. To bear the weight of judgment from those who don’t understand.

But I do this because I know my child. I know what works. And I know that the best way to support her isn’t to meet her distress with anger - but with understanding.

It wouldn’t benefit anyone around her, either, if I confronted her anger at the time. It looks contained because of the way I am handling it and they would see the harsh reality if it was done in the way they expect.

If this resonates with you, please drop a 💜 and I hope that you know you’re not alone.

Being misunderstood is one of the hardest things to cope with as PDA parents.

04/03/2025

Join us & Autism Support Allerdale and Copeland] on Oxford St, Workington on Saturday 15th March for our Table top sale to help raise funds for amazing causes and maybe pick yourself up a bargain or two😉😉

02/03/2025

A parent asked me yesterday whether they should use exposure therapy to get their child back to school. They said it had been recommended by the psychologist and they weren’t sure what to do.

Here’s what I think.

Exposure therapy is a treatment for anxiety. It works on the basis that when someone has an irrational fear of something, this fear can be overcome by gradually exposing that person to the thing they are fearful of. So if a child is afraid of cars, you might start with just looking at pictures of cars, then sit in the car and then move onto gradually going on short car journeys.

Exposure therapy works when a fear is irrational. By this I mean, when their level of fear is out of kilter with the reality of the situation. Cars can be scary, yes, and there can be accidents, but luckily these are not usually a daily occurrence. To avoid all cars in order to avoid accidents means that a person will miss out on a lot of life experience, all to avoid something which is a relatively rare occurrence.

So when someone suggests exposure therapy to get a child back into school, they are assuming that their desire not to go to school is irrational. They have understood the child as having fear which is out of proportion to the actual situation at school. They think, if the child gets lots of experience of school, they’ll learn that it isn’t as bad as they think it is and they will no longer be so anxious about it. Problem solved.

Unfortunately exposure therapy isn’t a cure-all. It doesn’t make bad situations good. If a person is very unhappy at school then exposing them to school gradually won’t make them happier. If they are anxious about school because the teachers shout and they get in trouble for minor rule infractions, then the problem might not be their emotional reactions. If they are being bullied or excluded by their peers, then this isn’t going to be solved by gradually spending more time with them. If they are bored and frustrated by what they are doing all day, you can’t resolve this through exposure.

Essentially, exposure therapy doesn’t resolve any of the reasons why a child might feel the way they do at school. It assumes that the problem is the child’s reactions, not anything about school itself.

That doesn’t mean that exposure therapy doesn’t have a place. There are some examples where exposure therapy might be appropriate to help a child with getting back to school. If they had a really bad experience at school which was a one-off (for example an accident), then it might help. If they are now at a different school but they are still reacting as if they were at their old school, then it might help. If there was a difficult situation with peers which is now truly resolved, then it might help.

But the most important thing when deciding whether to try exposure should be whether the child themselves wants to try gradual exposure. Not their parents, not their teachers, but they themselves.

For exposure therapy working requires that things are different now, that they feel safe enough and that they do not feel trapped. This means they need to feel able to say No.

It means that they need to be able to say, this isn’t working, and those around them need to listen.

with Eliza Fricker Missing The Mark

27/02/2025

Do you:

Feel like you are alone?
Friends and family just don't get it?

Battling every day to just get through the day/night, feeling burnt out trying to advocate for your child/children?

Have nobody to talk to or ask for advice?

Don't know where to ask for help or support?

Are you awaiting diagnosis and don't know where to turn to for support?

If you are interested in a FREE! parent/carer de stress, meet and greet other parent/carers here at Pony Pals Lakeland please put a like on this post so we can gage what interest we have before organise something.

We are thinking of a parent/carer pony mindfulness session, delivered in SMALL groups of like minded people going through a similar situation, to help and support eachother.

If we don't support eachother nobody will!

Just chatting to someone who knows what it's like and has experienced things similar can help so much.

There are families struggling alone and at crisis point whilst waiting for assesments/ diagnosis of autism/SEND, (as we all know how long these lists are) these families get no help or support from anywhere at all and are left to "figure it out alone"
These families are not even sign posted to charities what can help support them such as our partner charity Autism Support Allerdale and Copeland what does great work to support families and make a difference.

There is also Owl blue what do amazing work. https://www.owlblue.org/

BEE UNIQUE also can help with day trips and fun activities for families.

Other organisations what can help you are:

Family action https://www.family-action.org.uk/what-we-do/children-families (0-19)

Talk together
htpps://talk.together.co.uk/contact/

There is an autism awareness course you can do via MENCAP
htpps://www.carlislemencap.co.uk/how-we-can-help/parents-and-carers/cumbria-autism-family-support-project/

Our sessions WILL NOT be sat in a room where you go around telling your story in a circle kind of thing.
It will be more of a brushing the ponies and having a conversation, where you speak IF your comfortable to do so, set in a friendly environment where we all know what it's like and theres no judgement here.

25/02/2025

Lots of children suffer with emotional based school anxiety/avoidance.

Research has found that the number of children suffering with school avoidance/anxiety has doubled since pre pandemic.

We believe good mental health should be priority over everything.

Did you know that we work alongside local schools to offer occupational therapy during school hours?

We work with small class groups who visit regular on a weekly basis. We also work one to one for children needing extra support.

Children are given time out of the classroom accompanied by their TA or Nudge support worker to attend sessions here at Pony Pals Lakeland.

We do a range of activities including:
•caring for the many different animals we have here
•feeding, handling
•Learning about the history of the farm
•what is being harvested and when
•Agility handling with the ponies
•pony painting
•pony pamper
•Nature hunt
•Treasure hunt using map reading skills
•Growing our own food garden to learn where food comes from and much more.

The children gain new skills which they can use in everyday life aswel as setting them up to succeed for a brighter future.

Children build confidence, resilience, fine and gross motor skills, gain social and emotional skills and so many more beneficial skills.

If your child isn't attending school, we also work with the local authority (council) to offer alternative provision.

Are you having difficulty getting your child into school or are they feeling overwhelmed whilst in school?

We have a number of children who have sessions with us written into their EHCP.

We do have limited availability at the moment with only a couple of time slots available for this term.

22/02/2025

Save the date!

16/02/2025

It's almost that time of year again. 😍😍😍

14/02/2025

Happy valentines day

27/01/2025

Open as usual tomorrow

23/01/2025

Due to predicted dangerous weather & school closures, we will be closed tomorrow. FRIDAY 24TH JAN.

03/01/2025

Here at Pony Pals Lakeland we are inclusive for all.

☆We currently run sessions for children & young adults, but new to 2025 are now also offering sessions to Adults with learning and/or additional needs.

Please note children and adult sessions are ran seperate.

We take safeguarding seriously. All staff are DBS certified and qualified/trained in equine and human psycology, Hold occupational health care & equestrian qualifications.

Our centre is fully licenced with the local council and registered with companies house.

☆We Taylor sessions to the individuals needs and abilities, and run private one to one or small group sessions.

☆We don't just work with individuals/families with SEND. We offer affordable activities for all in our community.

☆We work with schools to offer occupational therapy to help children attending school to have time out during school hours to learn in an alternative nurturing environment which they can thrive in.

☆ We work with the Local Authority, Local offer and council to provide alternative provision for children and young adults who suffer with school anxiety/avoidance.

☆Our Equine assisted Learning and therapy focus on mental wellness before building useful skills to benafit future employability, aswel as providing useful coping strategies to help in every day life.

☆Our sessions don't just focus on the individual with the additional needs, but also provide therapy, relaxation and a social aspect for parent/carers alike.

☆We believe everyone should be able to access education. Education comes in many forms and starts with good mental health.

☆We focus on building confidence, resilience and getting individuals to engage in activities at their own pace.

☆Everyone is an individual and learning should reflect this.

☆We also offer fun sessions and themed sessions to just enjoy interaction with our beautiful ponies.

We currently have availability for Tuesday mornings.
Please contact us for further information.

31/12/2024

Wishing you all the best for 2025. Happy new year.