FAQ
What actually happens in a session?
Sessions are led by an equine specialist and a qualified therapist. You'll spend time in the paddock with the horses, so it's experiential — your whole body is engaged, not just your thoughts — which means things that are hard to access in a consulting room often become much more available out here. Afterwards there's time to unpack what came up, and no two sessions look the same.
An important part of the process is learning to connect with something that communicates very differently with us. This requires us to be attentive to 'how' the horse communicates as well as 'what' it is communicating. Horses don't have an agenda and they don't take sides. They simply respond to what's present — the undercurrent of tension, the moment something softens, the gap between what you're saying and what you're feeling. That kind of feedback, immediate and completely honest, isn't something you can get sitting across from each other in a room.
Does it actually work, or is it just a nice day out?
Fair question because it really is, typically, a very nice day out. But extensive research has shown that equine assisted psychotherapy can have an impact on many different issues — and it may be a powerful tool that moves things faster than lengthy talk therapy alone. But, we won't oversell it.
A single session won't fix a relationship. What it can do is shift something — create a moment of genuine honesty, or surface a dynamic that's been hard to name that gives you something real to work with.
What if someone is nervous around horses?
That's worth knowing about beforehand, and worth telling us. Someone with a serious fear of horses may find that equine therapy isn't the best fit for their situation — and we'd rather have that conversation early than have you feel unsafe. Having said that, the most common cause of fear is often a lack of understanding of horses and how they communicate with people and with each other. In most cases, mild apprehension settles quickly once you're on the property and you meet the horses. But if horses are a genuine barrier we can talk through whether this approach is right for you.
"But, don't horses bite and kick?" Horses are horses and sometimes they communicate with each other more forcefully, particularly if one of them is pushing boundaries. Generally, within established herd relationships and in a familiar and safe environment, that level of more forceful communication is not necessary and the horses will relate to each other in a much more subtle and respectful way.
What do horses have to do with therapy?
If you're thinking about therapy as typically being a human-to-human conversation, the honest answer is: 'not much'. You won't be riding, you won't need any experience with horses, and there's no horse-related activity to get right or wrong. And yet, what horses bring is something much simpler — and harder to find elsewhere. You will discover that there is a very real conversation going on that can be both profoundly intuitive and sensitive.
Horses are large, sentient animals that respond not only to what you say, but to what you're actually feeling. They read tension, calm, congruence, and conflict in the people around them and they just respond, in the moment, to what's real. So you get immediate, honest, non-judgmental feedback.
For many people — men especially — that turns out to be surprisingly confronting. And surprisingly useful. Because it bypasses the part of us that's good at masking, explaining, justifying, and managing how we come across. What shows up in the paddock is harder to rehearse.
How can a horse fix my relationship or situation?
Horses don't fix relationships or situations. They just make it harder to hide in them. They read emotional states without words — they respond to tension, to softness, to congruence between what you feel and what you show. Being around them has a way of making that gap visible, sometimes for the first time. They also allow us to try new approaches to old situations; to experiment; to problem solve; to discover things about ourselves and each other. Horses read the space without being told what's in it. They respond to what you're actually bringing — your tension, your calm, your disconnection — in real time, without words.
That's where the real work starts.
Is this actually therapy, or more of a nature retreat?
Both, genuinely. All of our sessions are facilitated by both a certified equine specialist and a qualified therapist, so this isn't wellness tourism — there's real clinical intention behind the work. At the same time, the setting matters. Being away from home, outside, and in nature changes what's possible for most clients. The horses are part of that environment, not a gimmick.
Traditional therapy is a conversation — people and a therapist in a room. That format works well for many people, and this isn't a replacement for it. What's different here is that the horses are non-judgmental, curious, and uniquely attuned to human emotion and behaviour — sensitive to the energy we bring, and able to offer immediate and honest feedback in response. That kind of real-time, wordless feedback is simply not available in a consulting room. For clients who feel stuck, or where one partner finds it hard to engage with talk therapy, the horses often open something different.
What should we wear?
Something comfortable and practical. You'll be outside in a working paddock, with horses, so closed-toe shoes are essential — your shoes are likely to get dirty no matter where the session takes place. Dress for the weather. Leave the good clothes at home.