Welcome to Equine Assisted Learning (and FUN!)

Are you looking for a school holiday activity that will ignite your kids’ curiosity, love of learning and life and the great outdoors? Do your children find teamwork hard? Looking to get them off screens? Make new friends? Learn emotional resilience and skills while having a great time? Even improve their literacy skills?! Book your place now for the Summer Fun series, places are very limited for this small group 4 week activity based program.

Mondays – Jan 13,20 27 and Feb 3 for ages 7-11.

Email natasha@seenandherd.com.au or call 0413369507 now.

Horse handling & Horse Powered Reading

Horse Powered Reading® (HPR) is a science based experiential learning program focused on the student’s natural curiosity and determination to help gain confidence, motivation, and overcome reading challenges. By integrating equine assisted learning, social emotional learning, and academics, Horse Powered Reading® helps students of all ages build self-efficacy and excitement for learning.

During sessions, students are allowed to make discoveries through activities using props to aid learning. Students and their reading partner (horse), interact providing the facilitator insight into what they are experiencing inside and what patterns are working or not working for them. That interplay allows for profound learning to take place. Through this process, the horse creates an opportunity for immediate feedback and experiential learning to take place.

The group and teamwork experienced through the summer school program also builds confidence, social relationships and connection with peers.

Summer FUN Program 2025

4  x weekly activity Mondays through the school holidays for your children to enjoy the great outdoors, away from screens, make new friends and learn new skills. Program delivered by a NDIS Registered and qualified Equine Assisted Therapist and Horse Powered Reading Facilitator, www.horsepoweredreading.com.

• Horse handling skills / Grooming / Literacy Games / Teamwork / Emotional resilience / Emotional Regulation / Mindfulness / Skill building
• Small group learning (< 5 children per day)
• Age group 7—11 years
• 9 am—12 noon
• Jan 13, 20, 27 and Feb 3
• NDIS Registered Provider—NDIS funding may be applicable- contact for details

Private sessions also available by appointment.

Polyvagal Theory was developed by Dr Stephen Porges. The organising principles of Polyvagal Theory (PVT) are Hierarchy, Neuroception and Coregulation.

Dr. Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory has revolutionised the way we view the body’s response to stress, considering the autonomic nervous system (ANS) the foundation of our lived experience.

Originally, we viewed the body’s reaction to stress as binary: we are either in a sympathetic (fight or flight) or parasympathetic (rest and digest) state. Polyvagal Theory, however, shows that there are multiple and blended states of arousal in response to real or perceived stress.

Our autonomic nervous system (ANS) subconsciously decides when we are safe or not safe, based on the information received from three streams – within our bodies, outside our bodies (environment) and between other nervous systems.

As humans, we long to be connected to others: it is a biological imperative that we are born with that develops and lasts throughout our lifetime. This third principle describes how our nervous system looks for and needs others with whom we feel safe enough to connect and with whom we can create supportive and protective relationships.

Working with horses, alongside a qualified therapist well trained in polyvagal theory and its application, can help people to understand their internal states and regulate them and practice co-regulation with other nervous systems (horses and therapist) in a safe and non-threatening environment.

Click HERE for a brief overview of PVT on YouTube.

Autonomic Nervous System