An equine mental wellbeing coaching programme, fully funded by the Department of Agriculture, to support farmers, farm families and the farming community is launching next month.

The one-to-one coaching opportunity – delivered by Horse Knowing’s Melanie Downes – will run from July to October. The sessions will take place for one hour per week for eight weeks, .

Programmes will take place in two midlands locations: Lilliput, Co. Westmeath at the Better Together Therapy Riding Centre; and Kilcloon, Co. Meath, at the Regional Equine Therapy Hub.

People from throughout the country can avail of the programme.

Equine-assisted learning

The initiative is aimed at supporting farmers and members of the farming community who are struggling to manage stress, anxiety, sleep problems, bereavement and overwhelm.

It is also aimed at those facing big life decisions who would benefit from self-care. The programme will be delivered in private individual one-to-one sessions.

Participants will learn strategies and coping skills to meet life’s challenges with more ease, guided by the presence of horses.

Downes said: “Equine Guided Coaching, also known as Equine-Assisted Learning (EAL), is a ground-based non-riding coaching method that works with the natural sensitivity and responsiveness of horses to support emotional growth and mental wellbeing. No horse experience is required.”

Working alongside a QQI (Quality and Qualifications Ireland) qualified EAL coach and horses, participants engage in weekly sessions designed to help with challenges.

The sessions include: managing stress, anxiety, and burnout; improving sleep and emotional regulation; building confidence and problem-solving skills; strengthening communication and decision-making; finding support in dealing with grief or loss, and learning to develop healthy boundaries and self-care routines.

According to Downes: “The reason we collaborate with horses is because they are finely attuned to human emotions and body language.

“Their honest immediate non-verbal feedback helps individuals connect with what’s going on beneath the surface, often when words are hard to find.”

Having grown up on a thoroughbred stud farm in the midlands, horses were a part of Downes’ daily life from the very beginning.

“From the time I was let loose in the yard, I immersed myself in all things equine: pony club; dressage; eventing; broodmare and young stock management; as well as starting young horses on their racing careers,” she explained.

“Like many children growing up on a farm, I learned responsibility, patience, and empathy through working with the horses.

“What began as a childhood love grew into a lifelong journey that has led me to where I am today, working as an Equine Assisted Learning Coach, supporting people in their personal growth, healing, and transformation.”

QQI certified in Life and Workplace Coaching through EAL, Downes holds a qualification in trauma-informed therapy from the Irish Institute of Counselling and Psychotherapy (IICP) in Dublin.

“Currently I’m continuing my professional development by training to become a Somatic Experiencing practitioner, a body-based neurobiological approach to healing trauma and chronic stress,” she said.

Alongside a spell working as a rider in dressage and eventing yards in Austria and Germany, Downes also volunteered with therapeutic riding services and was an integral part of the organising committee for Ireland’s inaugural EAS Symposium, held in March this year.

“Before returning to my equine roots, I spent a number of years working in film and TV as an art director- a creative career that taught me a lot about people, pressure, and burnout,” Downes said.

“It’s these life experiences, along with my therapeutic training and lifelong connection to horses, that inform the coaching work I do today,”

She explained that she now works with individuals from all walks of life with a wide variety of needs,

Downes said: “My coaching approach is strength-based and person-centred, recognising the innate ability within each of us to grow, adapt, and recover.

“Horses play a vital role in this process. Their sensitivity, presence, and honesty offer people a way to reconnect, not only with the world around them, but with themselves.

“In a world that often feels fast and fragmented, the presence of a horse can be profoundly grounding. My work is about helping people access that stillness, that strength and take it with them into their everyday lives.”

Bringing equine-based therapy to the farming community is something Downes is particularly looking forward to.

“In a sense, it’s a return to where it all began: on the land, with the horses and a deep belief in the potential of people to heal and thrive.

“I am looking forward to welcoming the farming community to experience this unique approach to remembering and tapping into the resources we all have within,” Downes said.

To find out more about the programme, visit the Horse Knowing website. Places for the wellbeing sessions are limited.

Equine-assisted learning

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