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Horseback Yoga Healing for Everyone

Fund this project to help disabled and ill children and adults, improve the environment and save abandoned ponies!

As a yoga alliance trained teacher, I combine yoga, yoga on horseback and reiki to create a fun, healing and relaxing experience for children and adults with chronic illness and or disabilities and their families. It takes them outside of their ‘problems’ and shows them a new way of being.

I help people be happy but need some help to get this project going.

What project?
I have taken on a small yard near Bristol which I plan to convert to a more natural and organic approach to keeping horses and create a fun, healthy and happy healing space for humans too. I move away from using chemicals, introduce trees and shrubs that horses like and will improve soil drainage, dig a herb garden for the horses to self select from and visitors to make tea from. This project will combine horseback yoga and natural horsemanship methods to provide therapy for any child or adult who needs it.

The number of children registered disabled every year is increasing but the number of services for them and their families is decreasing. I want to help plug this gap. I want to make horseback yoga therapy free for those who need it most. I need money to get it going and make it cheaper to run in the long term. Horseback yoga improves self-esteem, improves physical and mental wellbeing, assists families struggling to cope with illness and/or disabilities but is expensive to set up and run.

Additionally, there are more and more horses finding themselves in abusive and neglectful situations. We would like to offer a happy home with a joyful future to one or two of those horses. The two ponies pictured below have been abandoned by travellers and we would like to be able to give them a permanent home.


Combining meditation, relaxation, reiki energy, breathing exercises and movement with the movement and the energy of the horse is a powerful mode of healing and it's fun. I've seen it enable disabled children to do things they've never been able to do before. The benefits on disabilities and health issues are especially profound. Anyone can do it. Please visit about horseback yoga therapy  for more information and case studies

The £6000 covers the cost of a pony, necessary equipment and their keep for 6 months along with the delivery of 58 sessions of horseback yoga therapy. Money will also be spent on creating a safe, organic environment for the horses I use to live in - better fencing systems, a warm space for breaks and meditation and if I exceed the target, money will go towards a yurt or similar structure for doing yoga on the ground in preparation for mounted work.

I first discovered the healing power of horses as a child finding that they assisted me through an incredibly difficult childhood. I spent many hours caring for horses, riding and hanging out in their company and have felt a constant pull towards them my entire life.

As an adult, I was introduced to yoga and reiki and have found the benefits to be profoundly life changing. I now combine these three to create an experience for children and their families which takes them outside of their ‘problems’ and shows them a new way of being.

Combining meditation, relaxation, breathing exercises and movement with the movement and energy of the horse is a powerful recipe for healing but best of all, it’s fun.

What are the benefits?
PHYSIOLOGICAL
Something magical happens when people come into contact with horses. We know that by simply touching a horse, the hormone oxytocin is produced. This hormone is responsible for bonding and social interaction and could be one of the many reasons autistic children respond to them so positively. Therapeutically, horses in themselves are incredibly powerful before we even get on their backs so the benefits don’t stop there.

Brain activity relies on the healthy movement of cerebral spinal fluid and a good supply of oxygen. Oxygen reaches the brain through respiration and it’s carried to it via the circulatory system and the spinal fluid. Yoga boosts the supply of oxygen, improves the circulatory system and the movement of spinal fluid as does horse riding.

In fact, horse riding is unique in that, it moves the pelvis in such a way that it corrects the abnormal movement of the spine common in many children and adults with special needs on which healthy brain activity relies. In horseback yoga, we partner this action with breathing exercises and awareness.

If that isn’t enough to think about, consider that if your mind or body are affected by a disability or illness, you are less likely to breathe effectively. This is because breathing is reliant not only on the diaphragm but also, shape changes in the body. When we are ill or disabled in some way, we tend to move less effectively. Yoga breathing exercises and postures help to rectify this. Combining yoga and horse riding, creates a powerful boost to the brain’s activity.

EMOTIONAL

Yoga teaches self-love and helps us find peace and acceptance with ourselves.

Aside from the physiological benefits, children with disabilities will often reach a place where they can begin to despise their own bodies as a parent or carer, you may be struggling with stress and guilt.

As an adult, you may struggle to accept yourself and/or your body whether it is emotional or physical, due to a disability or illness. Often, a large amount of time is spent in medical situations where the focus can be on the problem and limitations rather than what we can learn from the illness or disability.

Yoga asks us to consider what positives we can take from the journey and find gratitude for what we do have, no matter how small that may be. Yoga teaches us how to find peace in some of the most challenging situations.

One of the most beautiful emotional benefits most people find though, is that they are able to achieve so much more than they thought possible and this in itself is a powerful boost to the self-esteem.

Words cannot express what it would mean to me and the people and horses who will benefit to be able to get this project off the ground. 

Rewards

Corporate sponsors of £1000 or more will be able to have the branding on a carriage to be pulled by one of our horses or ponies for an agreed period of time.

Corporate sponsors of £1000  or more will be given the opportunity to develop an employee involvement scheme.

Individuals giving £1000 or more will be welcomed to get involved in the project 'hands on' and receive regular, special updates on progress made and be invited to any special events. This could also be in the form of a natural horsemanship or horseback yoga session.

Individuals giving £100 or more will receive a special surprise, personalised gift.

Organizer

Nicola Carley
Organizer

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