Hope Reins is a relationship program facilitating a connection between our rescued horses and a person and the two help each other to heal. Relationships are often fractured and broken in todays context. Horses are increasingly being recognised as an effective tool to help people. This is because they are a prey animal so their hypervigilance means they "read" people very efficiently, but they are also a herd animal so seek belonging and being with others. The story of a rescued horse opens a heart of compassion and this and the connection we facilitate through specifically designed interactions enables lives to be changed. 

We are a working farm, so horse care and horse activity and care for the environment of the horse are part of the purposeful activity that our programs espouse. People come to help us love our horses and whilst learning about them also learn about themselves. This takes the focus off themselves and they become part of the team caring for horses. So many young people come with a lot of diagnoses that form their identity. At Hope Reins they can be just themselves, because that's all the horse sees. That can be a very freeing concept - free to be me!

Whilst Hope Reins offers free programs, it costs a lot to run the programs and care for the horses. We are completely donor funded. We get no government funding but rely on our local community and beyond to financially support what we do.