A new breed of pony club has been launched by a Leeds riding school, offering its members an alternative online experience.
Ideal for children aged nine to 14, the Think Like A Pony Club will be the UK’s first ever virtual club dedicated to teaching children how to communicate with horses respectfully and how to ride in balance with them mentally, emotionally and physically. It is made up of e-books, worksheets and video lessons, supported by online horsemanship instructors.
The Club educates its members how to communicate with a pony, understand ponies from a scientific perspective, care for a pony from ground to saddle, and understand how their relationship with a pony teaches them about relationships with others.
Members are awarded a badge for each achievement.
The unique concept of the ‘Think Like a Pony Club’ is the brainchild of founder Lynn Henry. She explains: “Think Like a Pony exists to empower children through horsemanship. We’ve been leading the way in equine therapy from our School in Leeds for over 10 years, and when Covid hit last year, we knew we could take our ethos to more people through an online club model.
“The Think Like A Pony Club is focused on helping children to develop empathy through a respectful relationship with a pony, and learn skills that are transferable to many other areas of life. Because it’s online, it’s open to everyone, whether they ride their own pony, attend a riding school or even if they’ve never ridden a horse in their life. We just want to make the holistic benefits of horsemanship accessible to everyone.”
The Think Like a Pony Club is now open for private membership, with plans to roll it out to riding schools and equine therapy centres across the world to use the online learning environment for themselves and their students.
To join, visit https://thinklikeaponyclub.co.uk/.
The Think Like a Pony concept was developed through Lynn Henry’s workbooks, published in 2005. The company was then registered in 2009 and has become renowned for its ground-breaking approach to educating and empowering both vulnerable and mainstream children. It has changed the lives of some of the hardest to reach children in the Leeds community – those who are at high risk of self-harm, suicide, depression and chronic anxiety. Its philosophies are based on teaching children how to build a relationship with a horse and how to ride empathetically.
Through the approach, children learn to build relationships based on respect for self, respect for others and taking responsibility for all that they do.
Think Like a Pony welcomes up to 160 pupils each week, with a team of 13 ponies and 8 horsemanship instructors, all specialist in mentoring children. It has recently gained planning permission to build a purpose-built dedicated children’s horsemanship centre on its flagship Bramhope site.
To find out more about Think Like a Pony, visit www.thinklikeapony.co.uk.
