Mount Gambier North Primary School students have been horsing around delivering their Equine Assisted Learning Program.

The school’s Equine Assisted Learning practitioner Judy Jenkin said the program had been exceptionally successful.

“This program has been developed to extend the strategies and skills we teach students in our wellbeing program and our unique Nest program where students learn about interception,” she said.

“Interception is the way our body reacts and behaves in certain situations.

“We support the children to recognise these feelings and give them strategies to acknowledge these feelings to have appropriate reactions and make informed choices to direct their personal behaviour.

“Equine learning provides great potential to extend on this learning by putting strategies students have learned in theory into practice with the horses.”

Mrs Jenkin said horses were herd animals, meaning they naturally related to all others including humans and lived in the moment, taking care of their immediate needs so observing the horses gave scholars a perfect example of how to remain calm.

Mrs Jenkin said students were led through steps to regulation, grounding, resourcing through their senses and were then given experiences to share with the horses.

“It can be feeling where their safe boundary is and how it feels for their bodies when they are calm and safe or what their body feels like when they do not feel safe,” she said.

“By recognising these feelings, they can communicate their needs or choose to engage or disengage to maintain their desired boundaries. This supports them to be in healthy relationships.

“Students are currently exploring self-talk and how that makes them feel, helping them to understand negative thoughts and the impact they have on how they see themselves.

“This program would not be possible without the generous support we have received from Stand Like Stone and OneFortyOne.”