Stable Surroundings

25/02/2026

A horse never asks who you were yesterday.

It doesn’t replay your failures.
It doesn’t whisper your regrets back to you.
It doesn’t measure you by old mistakes.

To a horse, your past has no weight.

It meets you exactly as you are — in this breath, in this moment.

Tired after a long battle.
Hopeful but unsure.
Strong on the outside… yet quietly carrying something heavy within.

And somehow, standing beside a horse feels different.

There is no pretending.
No explaining.
No proving yourself.

Just a steady heartbeat next to yours.
Just warm breath in the cool air.
Just eyes that see you without judgment.

In a world that constantly reminds you of who you used to be,
a horse only responds to who you are right now.

That is the magic of the human–horse connection.
That is the power of equine healing.

Sometimes healing does not come from long conversations.
Sometimes it comes from silence.
From presence.
From a gentle nudge that says, without words:

You are enough.
Right here. Right now.

Maybe the horse doesn’t hold onto yesterday
because it is teaching you not to either.

And maybe that is the real lesson.

❤️🐴❤️

25/02/2026

Pleased to welcome the new Equine Assisted Therapy service Chestnut Stables Dooralong The lovely Bec is available at Dooralong (think Central Coast/Wyee/Morriset area)

Our sessions with horses focus on the individual and their goals. All sessions provide guidance and support from our counsellors for the entirety of the time.

Each session is thoughtfully planned out based on the individuals unique goals. This means that every interaction is customized, purposeful, and aligned with individual needs rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach. Our horses fit in to these sessions by teaching us more about perspective, support, awareness, connection and more.

🐴 Anxiety

🐴 Negative / Intrusive Thought Patterns

🐴 Self-care

🐴 Self - esteem

🐴 Women / Mothers / Guardians

🐴 Youth

At Chestnut Stables we are:
- Registered Counsellors with the ACA Australia.
- Qualified Equine Assisted Mental Health Practioners (Certified EAMH Practioners).
- Able to offer planned sessions under the NDIS (approved funding).
- Committed to the well-being and safety of our clients and horses, following health and safety procedures at all times.

Phone 0451 970 199 or email chestnutstablesnsw@gmail.com for further information and / or inquiries.

Located on the Central Coast, NSW.

28/01/2026

To start the year off, HorseAid have released dates for the first residential groups for this year.
Free for eligible Veterans, First Responders and current serving defence members.

✨ Hello Horse Aid community ✨

We hope you’re enjoying the long weekend.

We wanted to share that we’ve opened registrations for our Feb/March programs in Helensburgh, NSW. Each program has limited places (12 participants max).

If you know someone in your world who may benefit — serving or ex-serving defence personnel, or first responders living with service-related trauma — we’d be so grateful if you could quietly pass this on.

And if this sounds like you, you’re very welcome here 💛
Our One Day Intro on 11 February is a great way to see if the program feels right.

✅ No horse experience required
✅ Free for eligible participants

👉 Register here: horseaid.org.au/programs

If you’d like a quick reminder of what we do, you can watch our promo reel here: https://youtu.be/NH92fKLrQdA

Thank you for your support, always.

Scott Brodie Equitation Education
The Healing documentary

16/01/2026

05/01/2026

✨🐴2026 - The Year of the Horse

As we step into the new year, we can’t help but acknowledge that 2026 will be celebrated as the Year of the Horse in China and many other East and Southeast Asian countries.

The ‘Year of the Horse’ has gained widespread attention across social media recently, with many cultures and communities jumping on board to simply celebrate horses.

But where does The Year of the Horse come from - or more specifically, The Year of the Fire Horse?

It derives from the Chinese zodiac (Shengxiao), an ancient classification system/calendar.

The Chinese zodiac calendar is based on a repeating cycle of 12 years, with each year represented by an animal and its reputed attributes.

This ancient calendar also incorporates five elements, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, which rotate in a 10-year sequence, with each element lasting for two consecutive years.

The 12 animal signs combine with the five elements to create a larger 60-year cycle, producing specific animal-element combinations.

✨ Enter 2026: The Year of the Fire Horse - a combination that occurs only once every 60 years.

Symbolically, the Fire Horse represents energy and momentum, blending the horse’s qualities of freedom, vitality and independence with the fire element’s creative and transformative power.

What does this mean for us at Equine Assisted Therapy Australia?

It really just gives us another reason to honour horses, not just as a symbol, but as a powerful presence in our work.

Every day, we witness how horses show up in many different ways, with their presence, awareness and attunement.

When we learn how horses engage in the world around them, we can also learn a lot about ourselves. 🐴💙

Will 2026 be your year to celebrate the horse?

01/01/2026

Wonderful research findings shared by Pegasus Connections.
Hopeful that Australia catches up to other countries who see the proven benefits

18/12/2025

Last session for 2025,
made meaningful with the beautiful card set from Nature Based Therapies Australia
Have a great ‘restive’ season, see you all in the new year!

17/12/2025

A great magazine feature for Pari and her practice Brumby Equine-Assisted Therapy in the Blue Mountains.
What I love about this article is that it provides the necessary information about what a true Equine Assisted Therapy provider has to offer.

🙏I’m really grateful to have been invited by Evelyn Taylor, editor of Discover the Blue Mountains magazine, to share my story and my practice, Brumby Equine Assisted Therapy, for their wellness page in the latest summer edition.

Being interviewed by Julie Miller was such a meaningful experience. The conversation felt genuine, thoughtful and deeply respectful of the work I do with people, horses and the land. It was a privilege to speak about my practice in a way that felt true to its heart, not rushed or simplified.

📕If you’d like to read the interview, you’ll find it on pages 8–9 of the latest Discover the Blue Mountains Magazine. 👇

https://bit.ly/DiscoverBMsummer2025

Thank you to Evelyn and Julie for holding this work with such care, and for creating space for stories like this to be shared within our local community.

I feel very thankful to be part of such a supportive local community.

☀️

08/12/2025

We can learn a lot from horses…”Feeling Safe transforms a horse’s biology. It raises oxytocin, boosts vagal tone, reduces stress hormones, softens the fascia, and shifts the entire body out of defensive tension.

When a horse feels safe — in their environment, with their handler, in their work — the nervous system no longer braces for threat.

The topline releases.
Breathing slows.
The gut begins to move again.
Movement becomes more fluid, coordinated, and effortless.

Safety is not an emotion for a horse — it is a physiological state.

And that state reshapes the body from the inside out.

A regulated, safe horse is a horse whose nervous system can finally rest, repair, reorganize, and reconnect with healthy patterns of movement and behaviour.”

04/12/2025

As we enter the festive season, it’s time to set aside time to unwind, time to connect with those closest to us and time to reflect on this past year, with a rest and reset, as we prepare for the next.

Stable surroundings will take a short break, it is scheduled in the calendar.
The last appointments available for the year are 17 & 18 December.

Returning to begin the new year from 7 January…

03/12/2025

This evening I had the privilege to pitch my services to the Awesome Foundation for the Awesome Lower Hunter region.
Everyone who presented tonight had very meaningful programs to offer.
This is a marvellous initiative by the Awesome Foundation to regularly offer these opportunities.
The evening turned into a very rewarding networking group for some meaningful connections.

Thank you Awesome Foundation for allowing the opportunity to share the work I do.

I highly recommend applying to try your turn to pitch for a small grant towards enriching the community.

The wider Newcastle Hunter area also has an Awesome at Lake Macquarie.

✨ Awesome Foundation – Lower Hunter: Pitch Night #2 Recap! ✨

We had an inspiring evening showcasing three incredible local initiatives:

🌸 Lotus Asocsa Support – a support group empowering female adult survivors of child sexual assault through healing, connection, advocacy, and recovery in a safe, compassionate, and trauma‑informed environment.

https://www.lotusasocsa.org.au/

🐴 Stable Surroundings – offering equine‑assisted programs that promote wellbeing, resilience, and personal growth in a safe, supportive environment.

https://www.stablesurroundings.com.au/

📚 Cessnock Library – Spherobot Program – sparking curiosity and creativity by introducing young learners to robotics and coding through hands‑on workshops with Sphero robots.

👏 A huge thank you to our pitchers for sharing their vision and passion with us!

🎉 Congratulations to Lotus Asocsa Support, recipients of tonight’s $1000 grant! We’re proud to support their vital work in the Lower Hunter community.

🙏 Thank you to Abermain Hotel fo hosting us tonight

🚀 Entries are now open for our next Pitch Night on 4th February 2026. The successful applicant, chosen by our board, will receive $1000 to bring their idea to life.

👉 Got a project that could make the Lower Hunter even more awesome? Apply now and join us for the next round!
📩 Apply here: https://www.awesomefoundation.org/en/chapters/lowerhunter

26/11/2025

Sharing a short chapter of this podcast where the presenter speaks about his own experiences with Equine Assisted Therapy

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4GYIrfOKGYd56NxJxrWy8Q?si=ZBC48bKeSvy_yAYlRiCXKw&t=2567&pi=nPHOZvI-RWOZ2

And if you want to hear the end, last few minutes, continue here..

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4GYIrfOKGYd56NxJxrWy8Q?si=kw2oANtlQCKHcmK5rE_Wmg&t=2853&pi=YQyRhCzfR-OGH

JB Copeland's Sappy Hour · Episode