Frequently Asked Questions

How do I book a session at C Horses?

If you’re not sure what sort of session you’d like to book, please schedule a call with us HERE

When you have made a booking, we’ll send you more information about where to come and what to expect.

Do I need a referral?

While we welcome referrals from your GP or mental health or allied health practitioner, you are welcome to self-refer to C Horses. Referral forms can be downloaded HERE.

What do I need to wear and bring?

As we work outside, and around horses, we require that sturdy, fully enclosed footwear is worn.

Please dress for the weather and the outdoors. We suggest wearing a hat and sun cream, a raincoat if it’s a wet and a warm jacket if it’s cold. We have spare boots and raincoats on hand if you don’t have these or forget to bring them. Please let us know if you have any allergies to animals, grass, bees, foods etc.

Do I need previous horse experience?

No previous horse experience is necessary. You’ll be supported with advice, guidance and supervision to safely be around the horses. Our horses are assessed, trained and regularly audited to ensure they safely interact with people.

 Can parents and carers be involved?

We welcome parents/carers and siblings to be involved in sessions where appropriate. This allows you to see the progress being made and to share in the experience. However, we do request that all visitors respect our facility guidelines.

Can I use my NDIS Plan?

Yes, if you are self- or plan–managed, you can use your NDIS plan to access services at C Horses. All practitioners at C Horses are qualified allied health professionals who have completed additional, specialised training to incorporate animals into our evidence-based practice. We make clinical decisions during service provision about the inclusion of animals in therapeutic supports, and document this in line with your capacity-building goals. Animal-Assisted Therapy can be an NDIS therapeutic support under current  agreements which state that Animal-Assisted Therapists may involve an animal to play a role in a goal-directed, structured intervention by a qualified therapist to assist the participant to engage in therapy.

 Do you provide horse riding lessons?

Therapy sessions may involve a mounted experience with a horse in a counselling and psychotherapy context if this is relevant to your goals. If you are interested in equestrian coaching, please contact us to book an equine assisted learning session rather than a therapy session. We offer a limited number of one-one-one lessons with a qualified coach on our well-trained horses. Please note that equestrian coaching is not necessarily a support covered by NDIS.

 What if I need to cancel a session?

We understand that at times it is necessary to cancel booked sessions and we really appreciate as much notice as possible. We ask for 24 hours’ notice to avoid cancellation fees. Please message or email us at least the day prior to your session time to cancel or reschedule. Late cancellations or no-shows will incur a cancelation fee that is the value of your session.

 What if I don’t enjoy being near animals and/or being outside?

At C Horses we offer flexible support in a way that is meaningful for our clients, so if you’re not interested in spending time with animals, or being outside, (or if the weather is bad) we offer a range of modalities, including those that are room-based and not involving animals.

What about the weather – what if it’s raining, cold or hot?

We have a range of spaces available that cater for all weather events.

We have airconditioned spaces to escape the heat in Summer and to keep warm in Winter, and indoor and undercover spaces where we can still work with the horses in wet conditions. Generally, all sessions can go ahead, regardless of the weather.

 What happens if I use a wheelchair or have mobility challenges?

Here at C Horses, we are committed to having accessible spaces so everyone can enjoy the farm.

Most of our spaces can be accessed with a wheelchair, we have an accessible bathroom on site, and some of our undercover therapy spaces have wheelchair access as well.

 What will happen in my equine-assisted therapy session?

Each session can look and feel quite different depending on how you feel on the day, and what your goals are. You’ll meet the horses and learn about their individual personalities. Horses provide unconditional, non-judgmental support and a unique relational space for you to share your and concerns. Activities with the horses can range from watching and learning about them, approaching and connecting with them, leading, brushing, and physical activities such as navigating challenges, and even riding. You could also do some reflective expressive art and nature-based activities. Generally, sessions will always include somatic resourcing – such as centring, grounding, orienting, moving and breathing, in a way that is right for you. You will also learn about your nervous system: trusting your feelings, understanding your window of tolerance and developing resources to cope with feeling dysregulated. These are important life skills that help you recognise and cope with strong emotions and mood changes. They are particularly important when staying aware and safe around horses.  Towards the end of the session, we wrap up the learning and insights from the session and thank the horses before leaving.

 What is Equine-Assisted Therapy?

Equine-Assisted Therapy (EAT) is a therapeutic intervention delivered by a registered, qualified therapist utilising evidence-based treatments in a setting that may include horses. EAT is deliberately designed to integrate pedagogical, psychological, and social interventions with equines for individuals of all ages (from young children to older adults) with cognitive, behavioural, neurodevelopmental, social-emotional difficulties, motor or neurological disabilities, or a history of trauma. EAT can be incorporated across the full mental health continuum of care, from prevention, early intervention, acute treatment to recovery.

Equine-assisted therapy must be delivered by appropriately trained and accredited healthcare professionals. It works because it aligns naturally with the most important principles of trauma-informed care: fostering safety, offering co-regulation, reintroducing choice and control, and providing a relational context where clients can slowly rebuild trust, not just in others, but in themselves. In a world where many therapy, educational and social settings are sterile, digital and stressful, equine-assisted therapy offers an alternative approach that is primal and profoundly healing. Sessions involve groundwork or mounted activities with horses that are integrated into broader therapeutic frameworks. Through observing, learning about, being with and developing a relationship with the horse, clients are supported and guided in learning more about themselves, working through difficulties, and improving communication and relationship skills.

It’s an approach that’s particularly effective for neurodivergent clients and those who benefit from experiential approaches. Most importantly, it’s very much a somatic therapy. It’s not all about talking and thinking, it involves the whole person which provides opportunities for self-awareness around feelings, emotions and relationship patterns. The processes in equine therapy can bring us back to our shared humanity across cultural and social differences and belief systems. We get to be seen, heard, felt and understood by a sentient, non-verbal being much larger and more powerful than ourselves. This helps us get to know our true self, our unique individuality, without judgement or shame. When we are ‘held by the herd’ we get to experience being part of something bigger and more powerful than ourselves. It allows us to explore new ways of being in relationships – with individuals in our lives, and with our systems such as school, medical, work and institutions.

 

HORSES AS THERAPY PARTNERS

As humans, we owe a lot to horses over millennia – they’ve cooperated with us to help build civilizations, expand horizons, fight battles, farm crops, travel long distances, and inspire great art and creativity. They also continue to help us learn about ourselves. Horses are deeply social, perceptive animals who live in complex, cooperative groups. In their natural environments, and even in domesticated situations, they spend much of their time moving, grazing, affiliating, and engaging in mutual regulation with herd members. Contemporary ethology shows that the old “prey animal” lens is far less important than once perceived. Horses are not driven primarily by fear, but by a need for connection, synchrony, and stability within their social field. They sense and respond to subtle changes in posture, energy, and intention, not out of hypervigilance, but from finely tuned interoception and social awareness.

 

Horses offer a unique therapeutic presence that transcends language and intellect, helping people who struggle to feel safe in their own bodies or in relationship with others to reconnect with their internal and external worlds. In therapy, horses provide a safe and dynamic environment, where positive change comes through the relationship facilitated by trained professionals. Horses are best understood through a social engagement model of fluid responsiveness, embodied awareness, and relational intelligence. Driven by an innate need for connection, synchrony, and stability within their social field, horses intrinsically sense and respond to subtle changes in our behaviour, physiology and cognition, not out of hypervigilance, but from finely tuned interoception and social awareness.  Their perceptiveness of the emotional states revealed by our demeanour allows horses to offer unbiased, effective, and immediate non-verbal feedback through their social responses towards us.

In the presence of horses, we are encouraged to feel safe and embrace all of who we are – even the parts of ourselves that we may feel ashamed of.  This can provide a way of exploring new existential and relational patterns for people who’ve faced interpersonal trauma, or prolonged helplessness or who’ve had attachment disruptions as children, where attunement has been absent. Horses’ relational capacity and calm curiosity allows us to break free of adaptive defences and experience attunement – when we are in empathic synchrony with another, and feel a sense of belonging, of being heard and understood on a deeper, unspoken emotional level. Horses and people need social relationships, a live connection with others. Horses value and respond to authentic connections, so we are encouraged to feel safe and embrace all of who we are in their presence – even the parts of ourselves that we may feel ashamed of. When we start to build a connection with a horse, we get to experience the natural rupture and repair of relationship, which builds emotional resilience.

Horses are experts at reading body language and noticing the changes in our nervous system that reveal our intentions, thoughts and feelings. At the same time, they are exquisitely perceptive of our emotional state and offer unbiased, effective, and immediate non-verbal feedback through their social behaviours towards us.  Being ‘someone’ to a horse, which is what happens when we enter their environment, can be a new and empowering feeling.  Horses’ relational capacity and calm curiosity allows us to experience attunement – when we are in empathic synchrony with another, and feel a sense of belonging, of being heard and understood on a deeper, unspoken emotional level. This can provide a way of exploring new existential and relational patterns for people who’ve faced interpersonal trauma, or prolonged helplessness or who’ve had attachment disruptions as children, where attunement has been absent.

 

Most trauma is experienced in the context of interpersonal relationships, – being hurt, being neglected, being let down by people, so we develop adaptive defences to our human relationships that can be hard to break through in conventional therapy. Horses are best understood through a social engagement model of fluid responsiveness, embodied awareness, and relational intelligence.

In equine-assisted therapy, these traits become therapeutic assets that help humans:

• Return to rhythm and regulation through shared movement and presence
• Receive honest, non-verbal feedback in a way that is non-judgmental and attuned
• Practice co-regulation by attuning to another being’s cues without words
• Reconnect with curiosity, embodiment, and relational safety

 

WHAT HAPPENTS IN A SESSION?

A session typically involves the regular components of a counselling session, with the inclusion of equine assisted activities where appropriate. Our activities are designed to be experienced with the horses rather than done to the horses. Horse welfare is coupled with client physical and emotional safety by providing appropriate, non-coercive positive training and enrichment for the horses, and horse-education for clients. This allows our clients to know what to expect, to recognise natural behaviours, and to understand the horse’s nervous system and related emotional states. Sessions will always include somatic resourcing – such as centring, grounding, orienting, moving and breathing, in a way that is right for the client. This is an important part of staying safe, aware and present around the horses. It’s also a vital component of psychoeducation about the nervous system, interoception, neuroception and embodied emotions and relational patterns. All activities are grounded in mutually respectful horse-human communication, and each is relevant to therapeutic growth and learning.

Interactions are designed to encourage experiences of: Presence and awareness; sensory-rich tactile processes; spatial and body awareness; emotional regulation; cooperation and trust; harmony and synchrony; relational rupture and repair; mutual feedback loops; pause and re-engagement; renewed access to hope. For instance, activities such as Safe Touch and Personal Space & Boundaries offer safe physical connections for trauma survivors with a history of touch-based violations without the risk of re-traumatization. Other practices, such as Groundwork, Synchronous Movement and Mounted activities can foster proprioceptive awareness, postural integrity and confidence. The rhythmic movement of the horse stimulates proprioceptive and vestibular systems which helps integrate sensory information from the body (interoception) and the environment (exteroception) improving coordination and balance. Sensory-rich activities encourage neurogenesis in the areas of the brain responsible for movement, spatial navigation, declarative and procedural memory and contextual learning.

Typical activities include:

• Observations
• Non-verbal communication
• Body Language
• Approaching and connecting at liberty
• Personal space and boundaries
• Safe touch
• Grooming
• Providing care
• Intention and visualisation
• Leading (stop, go, turn)
• Groundwork (circling, backing, yielding)
• Synchronous movement
• Nature walks
• Liberty groundwork
• Psychodynamic experiments
• Navigating challenges
• Mounted activities

 

BENEFITS OF EQUINE THERAPY

Equine-assisted therapy complements and enhances traditional therapeutic approaches and can be more attractive than room-based talk-therapy for many clients. It’s particularly effective when working with people whose distress is situated in preverbal trauma, somatic memory or attachment injuries. Trauma recovery begins when individuals can access and express parts of themselves that live beyond words. Equine-assisted therapy bypasses these intellectual defenses, tapping into emotional and sensory channels where trauma often hides. It naturally incorporates the core components that are essential for healing trauma – safety, regulation, sensory integration, relational attunement and empowerment. Rather than listing the disorders that may be addressed by engaging in equine-assisted therapy (such as PSTD, Mood Disorders, ASD and ADHD, ODD, Eating Disorders, and AOD issues) we acknowledge that EAT is an approach, rather than a modality. It is ideal for attracting individuals to treatment and supporting their ongoing treatment plans and interventions. The benefits listed below are relevant to all individuals living with the stress and distress of mental health problems and disabilities. Citations to published research supporting this are available on request.

 

Neurological benefits

From a neurological perspective, being in the presence of healthy horses impacts our nervous system responses. Opportunities for neurobiological repair arise organically – rewiring patterns of dysregulation, fear and disembodiment. Simultaneously engaging the neurobiological pathways involving motor learning, sensory processing and emotional bonding, regulates the ANS and reinforces new patterns of self-regulation and resilience. New research indicates there positive functional and structural changes to the brain for people with PTSD who engage in equine therapy.

Psychological benefits.

These include increased self-awareness, insights into relationship problems, understanding of nervous system responses, and improved emotional regulation. We also see measurable reductions in symptoms of mood disorders and trauma and improvements in agency, autonomy, locus of control and identity formation.

Cognitive benefits

Enhanced executive functioning enables people to shift from reactive, survival-driven behaviours towards more adaptive, thoughtful responses – even in challenging environments. Sensorimotor integration, and cognitive challenges promote strengthened prefrontal cortex activity such as decision-making, emotional regulation and goal-directed behaviour which are domains often impaired in trauma survivors.

Somatic benefits

The therapeutic relationship with horses can provide a safe space for clients to process complex trauma memories by engaging with them somatically, relationally and rhythmically rather than cognitively/verbally. Somatic activities can help individuals feel more centred and connected to the present moment, replacing hypervigilance and dissociation with groundedness and self-trust.

Physiological benefits

Benefits include stress reduction, increased interoception and improved motor skills.  This comes about because communicating non-verbally requires us to use new movement patterns involving all the senses. being with a horse allows us to experience regular rhythm patterns and bilateral ‘crossing the midline’ movement, which is especially important for people who might have some developmental delays.

Psychodynamic benefits

Incorporate psychodynamic practices can help clients develop insights around their unconscious processes. While we always acknowledge the horses relationally (which is an important part of the C Horses ethos) sessions provide rich experiences for clients to deepen their introspection and access their unconscious processes through considering what the horses symbolise, their archetypes, and the metaphors they invoke.

Social skills benefits

Working therapeutically with horses can help with social interaction and communication skills; better coping mechanisms; enhanced Theory-of-Mind skills; confidence and self- awareness; self-regulation and responsibility; leadership and parenting skills; healthy boundaries, resilience and empathy.

 

RESEARCH

 

There is now a substantial body of research supporting equine-assisted therapy and education. C Horses is involved in several research projects and welcomes collaborations in research endeavours.

 

Please CONTACT US if you’d like a list of peer-reviewed research and literature relevant to equine assisted therapy.