I have worked in adult mental health services for 18 years, in local authority and NHS settings. I have a BA Hons in Social Work and am currently a clinical manager in the NHS. I have worked with a wide range of mental illnesses including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar, eating disorders and personality disorders. The people I work with have ranged from living at home, or in supported living accommodation, care home, acute hospital wards and forensic settings.
I have ridden horses since I fell in love with a Shetland pony called Dumpy when I was 3 years old. He stole my heart and the obsession began. After school and every weekend I wanted to be at the stables. I worked at a local riding school for many years and a few livery yards. After various loan horses through my teens I finally got the opportunity to buy a horse who was on livery at a yard I was working at as groom while I was studying at university. He was everything I wanted and more and we spent 16 years doing everything together. We show jumped (although I discovered jumping is not where my talents lie!) showing, dressage, sponsored rides and camps. I was lucky enough to get a horse box and every weekend we travelled around on various adventures.
Like everyone finds, the equestrian lifestyle can be hard. We all have bad times and I had some unfortunate experiences that knocked my confidence. “Losing your nerve” is a heart breaking and incredibly frustrating thing to go through. You desperately want to control your anxiety and enjoy riding, but it just won’t go away. At times I was rooted to the spot, frozen in fear at the thought of just getting on.
Working through this I have found to be incredibly hard. I have tried many approaches, Hypnotherapy, Emotional Freedom technique and NLP to name a few. Like anything with mental health, every tool has its place and you have to put together a tool kit that works for you. I decided I wanted to combine my love for promoting mental health and my passion for horses and offer what I have learnt from personal experience, and as a professional to fellow equestrians who are struggling to achieve their goals.
I am still on my journey, moving goal posts as required, so I will keep you updated!
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