​About Hailey

Hailey is girl aged 7 living with a single parent. She witnessed physical abuse by her dad to his partner and contact with her dad results in displays of negative behaviour. Hailey suffers from anxiety. She hates school and does not cope well with change. She is unable to manage her emotions resulting in severe meltdowns at home. She was referred to us to become more confident, resilient and develop a love of life.

​At Stable and Wild

Hailey came across happy, relaxed and confident. She was very chatty and would talk openly about home and her strong relationship with ‘Nanny’ but was not keen to talk about her emotions and feelings. She showed lack of confidence in her own strengths and abilities and needed reassurance to complete tasks.

 

Over time Hailey was able to build positive relationships with the horses and small animals, she built trust with her coach and talked openly and honestly. Hailey enjoyed completing practical exercises with the animals, having them as co-coaches enabled her to show empathy and build positive relationships. Reflection and discussion enabled her to reflect on the importance of sharing her feelings and emotions instead of ‘bottling things up’ and she was able to show an understanding of how to work through her emotions in a calm way.

 

Hailey engagement with the practical tasks grew each week, she was excited to attend and looked forward to returning. In time she was able to plan her own sessions and tell Coach what they needed to do. She enjoyed being given responsibility, having a real purpose and being able to see her own progress as a result of her actions.

​Impact Measures and Outcomes

• Regulation of emotions - when she felt a bit angry or cross, she just thinks of the animals and how calm you have to be around them and that helps to make her feel calmer.

• Improved enjoyment for learning - reflected that she enjoys school and enjoyed telling her teacher what she has been doing.

• Able to recognise that change is not a bad thing and can actually be positive and you shouldn’t be afraid of it.

• Improved confidence from beginning to end of programme