Our Sessions
Before you arrive
Your journey with Wellness in Wellies starts with a referral. This can be done directly, or through your child’s school. Please see our ‘contact’ page to fill in an enquiry if you are interested. Once a referral has been made, time will be taken to pre-emptively adjust the sessions to suit the age, development, and current skills of the young person in question. The information you provide allows us to choose a suitable animal, plan timings effectively, and adjust tasks to best suit the student in question.
Once a referral has been made, we can book students in for their introductory course, and their journey with Wellness in Wellies can begin.
We can cater to physical disabilities, service animals, and any equipment needed for mobility or health issues, but please do outline these in detail during the initial referral, so we can adjust accordingly.
The introductory course
Each student will spend their first six weeks on our ‘Welcome to Wellness in Wellies’ course. This is a comprehensive introduction to working alongside animals, safety around the farm, trust, respect, and much more.
During this six week course, students will build on their skills each week, starting with the fundamentals, and working through more complex physical, social, and mental subjects as the weeks pass. This could include but is not limited to: building relationships, refining leadership skills, animal welfare expectations, behaviours, and emotions.
Students will partake in activities such as leading the horses; learning how to groom and care for their coat; feeding whilst learning about nutrition and pasture management; everyday husbandry tasks (yes even poo picking!); building and the completing of obstacle courses; observing behaviour, herd dynamics and emotions; and decorating with paints and accessories.
There will be freedom for the students to make choices regarding what animals they use, the complexity of the tasks they set, and how creative they choose to be.
What to expect during your sessions
You will arrive at our quiet, private smallholding in Abson, partway between Bath and Bristol, with the first thing you see being our stable block. As you exit your vehicle, you’ll be greeted with the sound of the sheep and goats bleating, the birds singing, and if you are lucky, a horse shouting out to welcome you!
Karen will be the first person you see, and she will help you through getting ready, and then explain what the plan is for your session that day. She will also pass on any information regarding staying safe, and if it is your first session, she will run through the fire drill, safeguarding policy, and where on the farm is out of bounds.
Before stepping into the yard, you will put on your boots and your hat, to ensure your safety. If the weather is a little chilly or its raining, then you’ll also wear a suitable coat.
Once you’re ready, you and Karen will begin your session. You may be working with our four sheep, one of the horses: Piggy or Adam, the four goats, or the two Shetland ponies: Annie and Dora.
Some sessions will be based mainly around the stable yard, where you might be making feeds, filling hay nets, or cleaning the stables. Other times you may spend your sessions out in our fields, observing the horses, foraging in the hedgerows, or feeding the livestock. We have several secure pens where work can be carried out in hand with the equines, this is where you would find your self when carrying out activities such as leading and obstacles.
We also have a secure space we use as a classroom (and to hide if the weather is awful!) where you can fill in your journal, write down your thoughts, read some of our books, or just relax.
Each session lasts an hour, and will encompass some husbandry tasks, some care tasks, and the main objective of the session. Our animals need to be taken care of, and their health and wellbeing is super important to us, so time will be taken at the beginning and end of each session to check they are healthy, happy, and suitably prepared for whatever task we are about to embark upon.
Your session will finish with some reflection on the day’s achievements, questions and answers, and a brief overview of the following week’s session. Before you leave you can say goodbye to all of the animals.
You will then change out of your boots, hat, and any wet or dirty outerwear you may have on, before returning to your vehicle and heading back to home or school.
Further courses
Once a student has completed their introductory course, they can continue their journey with us on another course that aligns with their goals and challenges. The choice of pursuing a particular course will be based on assessments and observations during their initial six weeks, any diagnoses the student may have, and their personal aims and interests.
We utilise a number of the Equimotional courses, whose vison and ethos closely aligns with ours. These courses are effective and follow a similar trauma-based approach, allowing the students to lead. We have seen great success with using these courses as a basis, and adjusting them to fit our unique initiative. These include but are not limited to: Friends and Healthy Relationships; Self Esteem and Identity; Mindfulness; Building Confidence and Resilience; Managing Emotions; Embracing Sensory Diversity; Boundaries and Consent; Befriending Fear; Managing Grief; Don’t Swallow the Black Pill, Misogyny and Masculinity.
As the students develop their skills with the animals, they can choose to either pursue a more horse-based or agricultural-based theme in further courses. This allows them to hone their physical skills in a way that is important to them, and can be the beginning of a career path if they so choose it.
For longer term, older students, we can support them in taking some formal qualifications regarding the animals they work with, This could be providing them with work based experiences, workshops and sessions that cover content in exams, and help with sourcing and carrying out these qualifications.
