Strength & Learning Through Horses

21/11/2025

Just a reminder that from now until October 2026, Strength and Learning Through Horses is supported by the Co-op Local Community Fund.

To find out more about our project and to choose us as your cause, click the link https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/94205.

03/11/2025

📢We need your help!
Earlier this year we were lucky enough to receive some funding from Selco Builders Warehouse and now we have the chance to win up to £10,000 in funding - but we need your votes!

Simply click the link and select Strength and Horses to win:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=kZvu8VGfM0eewUIdsvPKw3exrNeGkjdMil3AiaoVlaZUMzFBTlNLMTNFNzFPUFZITVdJU0VDVUlKNS4u&sc_src=email_3190739&sc_lid=406166835&sc_uid=i1f9f7ECmO&sc_llid=2639&sc_customer=C21692&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=VOTE+NOW+%3E&utm_campaign=Community+Heroes+Regional+Vote+-+North+London+-+October+20252025-10-24+13%3A58%3A00

Thank you!

28/10/2025

The theme for last weeks session here at the Charity was Self-Care. The young people explored this through the use of essential oils in horse care.

How the session worked.

Young people choose up to four essential oils, like eucalyptus, lavender, cedar wood. Wearing gloves, they squeeze drops of each on bits of cotton wool. They introduce the infused cotton below the horse’s nostrils, and observe the horse’s behaviour. Young people work in teams to feedback on the behaviour, what it means about the horse’s emotions and compare it across different essential oils.

The horse might move towards it, away from it, inhale it heavily, lightly, make licking and chewing jaw movements or might not do anything at all.

As different essential oils have different properties, a horse’s behaviour towards them is valuable insight into that horse’s physical and emotional health.

For example, eucalyptus is known to improve respiratory health and soothe muscle or joint pains. In this session, the horse showed a bigger interest in the eucalyptus by heavily inhaling that cotton, therefore expressing that they might need extra care for their muscles, joints or lungs.

Through this activity, young people experience the importance of self-care, caring for others and learn about the non-invasive pathways for checking in with themselves. Another great session.

22/10/2025

We are absolutely delighted to say that Strength and Learning Through Horses is now part of the Local Community Fund. To support us, download the Co-op App, become a member and you will be able to choose our cause, so we can receive a share of £5m amongst many worthy, local causes. This is an immense privilege for us so we thank for the belief in our cause. The funding period runs until October 2026. Link is in our bio ☺️

21/10/2025

The horses and the team have some lovely news to share with you tomorrow. Stay tuned ☺️

17/10/2025

Today our Equine Specialist, Alicia, worked with the horses in a session that helped the young people understand where it is safest to approach and make contact with the horse, and therefore where it is most comfortable for the horse.

Young people work in pairs and are given three different coloured stickers; green, yellow and red. Similarly to the zones of regulation, the green zone is the safest zone, the yellow is less safe, and the red zone is least safe; still relating to the horse’s comfort.

After sharing some insight of horse evolution and behaviour, we invite the young people to approach the horse and place the dots of colours onto the horse’s body.

Nb: this has encouraged conversations around how we can approach the different zones (physically and emotionally), how different horses may have different zones, how horses communicate their different levels of comfort. A rewarding day for all.

16/10/2025

Grateful to have the support of behind our Charity and mission. Their premium products make them such a respected heritage brand…popular with grassroots, amateurs all the way through to elite levels of the equestrian community. Thank you to the whole team for the support 🙏🏻

15/10/2025

Thank you Racing Together for sharing insights from our CEO, Rosie Bensley

13/10/2025

Delighted to share that we now have the Learning Outside the Classroom badge 🙌

Congratulations to Strength & Learning Through Horses

Find out more about the LOtC Quality Badge and how it could help your organisation drive school bookings by developing safe and high quality learning learning programmes

https://www.lotc.org.uk/providers/lotc-quality-badge-2/

12/10/2025

Huge well done to Laura for completing her fundraiser in eight and a half hours and to everyone who donated. A super achievement 🙌🏻

19/08/2025

How horses and humans react to one another’s body language, and how this mutual responsivity is reflected on by young people and / or therapy staff is still a source of continued fascination and learning for us.

14/08/2025

In 2023 - 2024 as a result of attending a SLTH Therapy or Education programme:

90% of young people said they had more confidence in their abilities

75% said their communication skills had improved

90% said their teamwork skills had improved

200 young people achieved a qualification

Overall our work empowered 455 vulnerable young people to make positive changes in their lives and we have big ambitions to reach and support even more..