Horse Tales Equine Assisted Learning Program gives young people a safe, hands-on learning experience, with horses as the main teacher.

The program was developed and is facilitated by Fran Griffen, owner of Hunter Natural Horsemanship Centre and Youth and Family Councillor Lisa Dyer from the Dungog Shire Youth Services.

Mrs Dyer connected with Mrs Griffen, an author and equestrian coach, when Mrs Griffen supported her through her daughter’s learning journey.

“My daughter had a learning disability and I was home schooling her with her lessons including natural horsemanship with a young unbroken horse,’ said Mrs Dyer.

“The change I saw in her confidence levels, her health and well-being, enabled her to go back to school.”

This inspired Mrs Dyer to approach Mrs Griffen about running a program for young people through the Dungog Shire Community Centre and Horse Tales was born.

Groups of six young people attend the centre’s outdoor classroom for two-hour sessions for six weeks. The young person’s life experiences are paralleled with the horse’s own story and explores self-awareness, boundaries, communication, confidence, trust, leadership and teamwork.

“The young people can talk about things they usually cant talk about sitting at a desk, the horses give them that space,” said Mrs Griffen.

“As the course goes on you can see the confidence build in the young people and we have had great feedback from the schools.”

You can find out more about Horse Tales Hunter Valley on their Facebook page, get in touch with the Dungog Shire Community Centre here  or the Hunter Natural Horsemanship Centre here.