A Social Enterprise with Horses at its Heart
Registered Community Interest Company number: SC748117
WELCOME
Do you dream of becoming an equine assisted professional who uses mounted or ground-based activities with horses to help people?
Perhaps you are already an equine assisted practitioner looking for fresh session ideas, CPD training and resources? Are you interested in how horses could improve your own life?
Maybe you want to learn skills that will help you form a safer and more trusting relationship with your own horse.
Whoever you are and whatever you need, we have something for you here at With Horses!
Social Impact
​With Horses is a Community Interest Company set up to ensure that people from all backgrounds can access the life-changing benefits of horses and to increase diversity in the Equine and Land-based Industries. Your purchase will help to provide free training and therapeutic retreats for those who need the benefits of horses and the outdoors the most. To date, with your help, we have offered:
​
-
28 training courses for young people who would never normally have the opportunity to gain accredited, vocational qualifications.
​
-
20 equine and nature-based therapeutic retreat places.
Equity, Diversity
and Inclusion
Why is it so important in the Equine Industry?
“People need to be exposed to stories like mine. That you can do this and not have all the money… Without mentorship, scholarship, and access, getting to the top may not have been possible.
​
-Top rider Jordan Allen
The horse world is synonymous with privilege and has a poor track record when it comes to creating opportunities for people with lived experience of disadvantage, disability or discrimination. With Horses CIC exists to help redress the balance. The profits from our courses, curricula and services provide free training scholarships, opening up careers pathways in the equestrian industry to those from underrepresented communities. A recent report from the British Equestrian Federation which revealed that bullying, racism and classism are rife in British equestrianism underlines the vital nature of our work.
​​
-
33% of white respondents agreed working in an equestrian environment was a viable career option, figures from black, Asian or mixed background were 6%, 10% and 16% respectively.
​
-
76% said they agreed with the statement 'people like me are underrepresented in horse riding and other horse related activities.
​
-
Only 9% of respondents from socioeconomically underserved communities felt working in an equestrian environment was a viable career option.
Areas highlighted include the sport’s perceived “elitist and classist” nature, a lack of awareness surrounding available riding opportunities and location of equestrian facilities, plus prohibitive costs, bullying and racialised experience, exclusivity in equestrianism, affordability as a barrier to participation and a missing diversity ethos, with many feeling that equestrian environments were emotionally unsafe for them.
BEF REPORT
“At present, the demand for equine activity in diverse communities often goes unmet and many equestrians from diverse backgrounds struggle to find their place within the industry.”
Shaquilla 'Shaq' Blake
“If you can’t see people who look like you doing it, living it, how can you dream of becoming that thing?”
BEF Survey Respondent
It would be nice to have trainers that look like the children or students that aren’t represented normally, so that there is a sense of safety and comfort