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Monday, 20 September 2010 |
 Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy The Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy is unique in the world in terms of what they do and they are located right here in the UK inside the boundaries of the New Forest. They are a registered charity and also a registered College of Further Education. The Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy's mission is to enable horse-motivated students with special needs to relate more successfully to others and to have greater and more appropriate control over their own lives. This is done through their involvement with horses. This use of horses, to enable young people to learn and develop, is the core of the Fortune Centre. It is the sole reason for The Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy's existence and has been their purpose since the foundation of the centre in 1976. The Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy provides a unique offer as a specialist independent source of further education for 16-25 year olds who have learning difficulties and other special learning needs. One of the main learning programmes offered by the Fortune Centre is a three- year residential Further Education Through Horsemastership Course (FETH). This helps young adults with learning difficulties to gain Life and Social Skills, using a horse-based extended (residential) curriculum. The learning design behind the FETH course is at the leading edge of both learning and behavioural therapy, another unique feature at the Fortune Centre. By way of adding back to the local community, the Fortune Centre run weekly riding therapy sessions for children between the ages of 2 and 12 who have a variety of special needs. There are 28 horses at the Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy, mostly Cobs and the different characters of the horses work extremely well with the differing needs of the students. Students are required to interact with a wide variety of horses so that dependence on one or two “special friends” is not developed. This helps the student to relate to as many people as possible in the world around them. There are life skills and there's life itself... In the specialist provision of the Further Education Through Horsemastership Course, students develop life skills; this of course exposes the question of life! Where and how a skill is learned, moulds and influences the way in which it is used. For many the security and feel of The Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy environment is what enables honesty, the realisation of need and the courage to face it all. The embrace of routine and safety, purpose and understanding is what embeds the learning as much as example, practice and repetition. Learning for any of us can be challenging, sometimes scary. It takes determination to be open to increasing self-awareness and self-reflection, to see other people‘s point of view and to focus on what is needed, not just what is wanted. Anyone visiting The Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy would see the power of the horse - at the heart of changing minds and lives. A power with care and subtlety which are what give learning at The Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy the edge it delivers for its students. < |
