Therapy Through Horses Ireland

21/01/2026

Have you recovered enough from the holiday season to consider your next workshop!!?? 😁

Recharged and ready to continue your journey of self discovery? 😍

Please click on the link below to see the upcoming workshops on offer in 2026 🥰

All hosted at the Slieve Aughty Centre and included a delicious organic lunch

Booking through the website, where €50 deposit will secure your place ✨

Look forward to meeting you ❤️

Discover Growth Through Equine-Assisted Learning Transformative Workshops for Emotional Healing and Personal Growth Join us at Therapy Through Horses for a unique journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Our Equine-Assisted Learning workshops offer a nurturing space where individuals can connect w...

08/01/2026

😂

If you find an equestrian on their side this winter, please turn them the right way up and power them with tea.
No, seriously. This is not a joke. This is a health and safety advisory.

Winter equestrians are a fragile species. We can usually be found frozen in gateways, wedged against stable doors, or lying horizontally in a muddy field questioning our life choices. If discovered, do not panic. Simply follow the steps below.

First, check for signs of life.
Are they muttering about mud, frozen taps, or why they didn’t take up knitting? Good. They’re still with us.

Next, carefully rotate them upright. Winter riders tend to tip over due to excess layers, stiff joints, and boots filled with mud that now weigh approximately the same as a small car. Use correct lifting technique. Bend your knees. Protect your back. This person has already ruined theirs.

Once upright, immediately administer tea.
Not lukewarm tea. Not herbal nonsense. Proper, builders’, strong-enough-to-stand-a-spoon-up tea. Bonus points if it’s delivered in a battered yard mug that smells faintly of hay and regret.

Do not ask how they are.
They will say “fine” while their eye twitches and their soul quietly leaves their body.
Expect them to be wearing:
• Seven layers, none of which are actually warm
• Gloves that are somehow both soaking wet and frozen solid
• An expression of pure regret

They may appear grumpy. This is normal. Winter equestrians have been up since dawn, defrosting buckets with kettles, chipping ice like they’re auditioning for a mining job, and explaining to non-horse people that no, the horse cannot “just stay inside today”.
They are tired.
They are cold.
They smell faintly of horse and despair.

Under no circumstances should you suggest:
• “At least it’s not raining”
• “You chose this life”
• “Horses are just pets”

If the equestrian starts laughing for no reason, crying into their tea, or talking about selling everything and moving to Spain, this is also normal. Continue tea application until coherence returns.

Once revived, they will stand up, pull their hat down, sigh deeply, and go straight back out into the cold to do it all again. Because despite everything — the mud, the ice, the numb toes, and the emotional damage — they love it.

And if you find them on their side again tomorrow?
Turn right ways up.
Apply tea.
Repeat until spring. ☕🐴

20/12/2025

But it all changes this weekend (in our minds) Winter solstice is the turning point, and it's practically spring 🌱 🌼 (just don't mention January and February!!) 😂😂

08/11/2025

In therapy, this is the work:
To stay present when someone brings pain into the room and not take it as a personal threat.

The therapist knows that when a client says, “You don’t understand me,” or “You’re not really here,” it isn’t an accusation. It’s the surface layer of something deeper — a history of not being met. The words are not about the therapist as a person; they are about what is happening in the client’s inner world. The therapist doesn’t defend or explain. They stay steady. They listen for what is being communicated beneath the language.

That steadiness is the ground on which trust begins. It shows the client that intensity does not break connection, that discomfort does not end the relationship. The therapist’s role is not to correct the client’s perception, but to stay in contact long enough for meaning to unfold.

Outside of therapy, this is much harder.
In ordinary relationships, people expect reciprocity. They expect to be seen, heard, and understood in return. When pain is voiced, the instinct is to respond — to clarify, to justify, to even the ground. The same statement that a therapist would hear as information, a friend or partner often hears as blame.

“I feel invisible” quickly becomes “You’re saying I did something wrong.”
“I feel scared” becomes “You don’t trust me.”
And with that, the space for understanding collapses into defense.

The difference is not moral, but structural.
A therapeutic space is built to hold asymmetry — one person’s story, one person’s pain, contained within another’s calm attention. It is not mutual, and it is not meant to be. The therapist’s containment is the intervention.

In regular life, both people are exposed. There is no professional frame to absorb the heat. Emotional safety depends on both parties sharing enough self-awareness to stay curious rather than reactive. When that is missing, conversations that could have deepened connection instead turn into conflict.

The emotionally safe partner — much like the therapist — learns to recognize when someone’s pain is not about them. They pause, breathe, and choose not to defend. They understand that most hurt is not an attack, but an echo.

The difference is that in therapy, this stance is the professional’s responsibility.
In relationships, it is a gift — one that, when given by both sides, allows love to become what therapy models: a place where truth can be spoken without fear of losing connection/the relationship.

19/10/2025

Tell me you want a walk, without saying you want a walk 😂🥰

12/10/2025

Delighted to be offering the following workshops in the beautiful surroundings of Slieve Aughty Centre

Booking essential as places are limited

Contact Louise on 087 6363717 to reserve your place now

12/10/2025

04/10/2025

My eco friendly bed warmer's were a blessing last night! Hope everyone is okay after storm Amy 🥰

17/09/2025

I've been listening to Boyd Vartys podcast, which is a day by day account of his time living for 40 days and 40 nights alone in a South African game reserve:
Quote for day 11: One of the biggest differences between people and animals is that people behave differently in private whilst animals don’t. Shame happens when your feelings are not safe. Here though there is no one to judge or compare.

24/08/2025

Great turnout today 🇵🇸 Discover Loughrea

24/08/2025

Kitten found on the grounds of St Joseph's Hospital Ennis. A staff member said he might have arrived in a catering van engine yesterday. The kitten is very tame and used to people and being handled. Looks like he is in good health. Safe with me now. Anyone missing him?