Retired race horses on track to help troubled kids
Image: A Current Affair
New charity ‘Rehab 4 Rehab' is saving the lives of children and retired racehorses on the Mornington Peninsula through a ground-breaking equine therapy program.
Children struggling with mental health issues get paired up with clinical psychologists, occupational therapists and retired racehorses to accelerate therapy sessions.
“We are seeing lots of children with anxiety, depression, self-harming, suicidal kids, lots of autistic kids,” found Alisha Griffiths told A Current Affair.
“They are practicing exactly what they would do in the normal four white wall environments but they’re doing it on a farm with retired racehorses.”
Ms Griffiths said she had been around horses all her life and now she wants to share them with others.
“They also build a rapport with a psychologist a lot quicker, they trust the psychologist because they’re around a retired racehorse,” she said.
Clinical psychologist Jo Paterson crossed path with Alisha’s charity when she was looking for somewhere to keep her own horse – and she ended up with a job.
“When you’re talking about things that are distressing and through trauma, then you’ve got something there that can help regulate, when they get upset,” Ms Paterson said.
There are 46 horses at Ms Griffiths property and most of them are retired racehorses.
In order to train them for being a racehorse to a therapy horse, they settle their lives down and “show them a slower pace”.
Head horse trainer Alex McDonough said she’s surprised by how well the horses have adjusted.
“It’s almost like they know they’re around children,” she said.