Amy Isbister founded Hoofprints to Healing about 12 months ago, after discovering the role horses played in emotional regulation.
Photo by
Billie Davern
After discovering the power of horses in healing, Amy Isbister has founded a local service that uses equine-assisted learning to support emotional regulation.
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When witnessing her autistic son interact with his pony, Missy, the mum-of-three’s initial thought was, “How do I bottle it up and how do I share it with the world?”
“One day, he was just sitting down there in the paddock while (Missy) was eating and I thought, ‘you’re a completely different child out here when you’re with the ponies’,” Amy said.
Amy went on to undertake training with Horses Helping Humans, a program that teaches trainees how to use horses to develop a client’s understanding of interpersonal communication skills, body language, emotional intelligence and personality types.
From there, Hoofprints to Healing was created, bringing equine-assisted learning to Tallarook.
The idea behind the service is to provide a safe space for all, with Amy providing one-on-one sessions every Monday for both young people and adults, as well as women’s retreats and youth hangouts once a month.
During private sessions, Amy works through different topics with the client by leading different activities with a horse or pony from her diverse herd.
For example, the client could be working on setting boundaries by using body language to communicate with the horse through putting out their hand to tell the horse to stop.
“A lot of people struggle to say no, so we use the horses to teach about having your personal bubble,” Amy said.
Amy Isbister with Dora and Nick, two rescued ponies from Project Hope that work with clients in Hoofprints to Healing sessions.
Photo by
Billie Davern
A unique aspect of the sessions is the lack of words used throughout.
“The big thing is, we actually do all this without talking,” Amy said.
“We do not talk to the ponies at all, it’s all via our body language.”
While this enables clients to learn about how to set boundaries, it also provides new ways for those who are non-verbal to communicate.
“The other reason we don’t talk to ponies is because I have a lot of parents contacting me for their non-verbal children wondering how it will work,” Amy said.
“It’s okay because horses can’t talk, we don’t need to use our words when working with them.”
Amy said she thought the success of the sessions resulted from the open setting of nature and fresh air, as well as the fact that horses “don’t judge”.
“They don’t care how much money you make, they don’t care what you do for a living, they don’t care about what’s going on in your day — they care about the moment and how you are then and there,” she said.
“I’ve seen firsthand with clients that they’ll come in quite nervous and anxious about what’s about to happen, the unknown.
“But they leave really calm, and they want to come back because they’re searching for that.”
She said she felt grateful to be able to support people in such a unique way.
“When I first started, I didn’t know if this was going to take off, but now that it has, I’m just like, ‘wow’,” Amy said.
“Getting (positive) feedback from parents and messages from clients, it absolutely just warms my heart. I’m grateful that I can do it.”
Amy wanted to extend thanks her daughter, Summer, who helps out behind the scenes and always supports group sessions and women’s retreats.
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