When Kelsy Stewart heard she’d be working with horses, she was super excited.
On the last day of the Lead and Learn program, Stewart and her classmates led miniature horses around a paddock at Rainbow Stables in Timmins.
They started simple by walking around, eventually jogging and leading the horses through obstacles and over a small jump.
Stewart is sad to see their time at the stables end.
“I have really bad anxiety and I find I was pretty nervous when I first got here…because I never worked with animals like this. It actually ended up being really therapeutic and just fun and it helped; I don’t feel anxious or nervous. I don’t think about my anxiety when I’m here, I just have fun,” she said.
Eleven students from the ACCESS Centre at the Northeastern Catholic District School Board are part of a pilot project through the Ministry of Education.
The ACCESS Centre's Laura Kelly explained the students, who range in age from 17 to 24, can earn two credits through the course, which has online courses and the experiential program.
The group has been on a variety of field trips into the community as part of it, having already done art therapy (pottery) and physical fitness classes. Once a week for the past four weeks, they’ve been at the Timmins Therapeutic Riding Association for its miniature horse program.
“They’ve been grooming and bringing them for walks and teaching them little tricks and giving them treats. It’s been really beneficial to these students to work with these animals. Our students have done a fantastic job with them and received quite a few compliments actually for their very gentle approach with these horses,” said Kelly.
“The horses are very sensitive animals and they require calmness in the people that are working with them and the students have done a very, very good job remaining composed and calm while they’ve been working with them.”
As Stewart has experienced, there are other benefits to working with the horses.
“This course is related to wellness, so there are therapeutic benefits to working with animals and it’s really obvious in the student’s responses to them and in their general feeling and attitude after working with them. They’ve all felt uplifted by their work with these animals and the animals have responded very well to them,” said Kelly.
The companionship of working with an animal, she said, is very soothing as well.
“And to know that there is an animal that is going to respond to you and appreciate you, I think it’s just very fulfilling to the human soul,” she said. “These students have really benefitted emotionally from this experience.”
Going into the program, Stewart said her sister had told her that horses are therapeutic.
“But I didn’t really understand why they would be until I started working with them,” she explained. “You just kind of get a relationship with them, you bond with them.”
Kyler Goerk has also learned a lot through the program.
After leading his horse over the jump on their final day at the stable, he said he really enjoyed it.
“My horse hasn’t given me too much trouble, so I’m happy about that. People have told me I’m really good with him, so I actually really enjoy that,” he said.
Heading out to the program for the first time, he said he was a little worried.
“He was actually pretty good, surprisingly. Over the days of being here he’s been better and better, so I really like that,” said Goerk.
With a successful first showing, Kelly hopes the ACCESS Centre will renew its contract with Rainbow Stables again next year.
