Staff saw the benefits that equine therapy was having on young people after Carol Glen, a teacher at Rosewood School, which supports children who have medical, physical or health needs to get an education, first brought her horses to the hospital a year ago. Today, the hospital has a permanent paddock, which allows the horses to stay on site and young people, staff and their family to interact with the animals more regularly.
In the past six months, more animals have been introduced to the hospital and Carol now brings along donkeys, sheep and chickens, as well as her horses. She has also undertaken an equine-based learning course to enhance her knowledge about how horses can support people in boosting confidence, regulating emotions, help with anxiety and enhancing communication skills.
Interacting with the animals also encourages young people to spend more time outside and creates novel learning opportunities. This includes understanding how to look after animals, finding out where wool comes from, and learning how chicks hatch.
To date the equine interventions have helped young people with a range of conditions including anxiety, depression, Tourette's syndrome, ADHD, psychosis and non-verbal autism.
Dulcie, a young person who spent time at KMAH with the animals, said: "Whilst at KMAH I was able to interact with sheep, horses, ponies, and chicks. My favourite was the horses, especially Jammy.
"My favourite part about having the animals at KMAH was finding out how interested I am in them and how helpful it was to be around them. I had never really been an animal person before, but it made me so much more confident. Since being discharged, I have started to go horse riding and am looking into getting a support dog. Also, it was incredible to hatch the chicks because it was something I had never done before."
