An innovative new partnership project between Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust (PKCT) and Perthshire-based Equimotional accredited coach Minds and Manes has proved to be hugely popular.

The Steady Strides project is a new initiative that aims to provide children and teenagers with an opportunity to improve their confidence, self-esteem and emotional regulation through spending hands-on time with wellbeing ponies.

The project – which was recognised in the Scottish Parliament earlier this year - was awarded £4000 from the National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK. 

The grant has funded six one-hour sessions for 12 young people aged between seven and 11 years old, with the fully funded places available for young people involved with PKAVS and for young people with additional needs from the Perth and Kinross Council area. 

Places on the sessions booked up within days of being announced and have been so popular that the waiting list has also now had to be closed. 

Steady Strides is part of PKCT’s discovery, learning and engagement work which aims to enhance people’s understanding and appreciation of the countryside and help people enjoy the health and wellbeing benefits of being outdoors. 

Catherine Leatherland is PKCT’s Discovery, Learning and Engagement officer. She said: 

We’ve been delighted by the response to the Steady Strides project. It’s been wonderful to see so many young people keen to make the most of this opportunity to spend time outdoors with the ponies, learn more about them and appreciate nature and the countryside. This is currently a pilot project but the level of interest in this initiative demonstrates that there is a clear need for education and engagement projects of this type. We’re therefore hugely grateful that - thanks to National Lottery players- we’re able to deliver this exciting new project and, in line with The National Lottery Community Fund aims, bring children together, helping them thrive and supporting them to live healthier lives.

The children taking part in the sessions have been learning to groom the ponies and how to handle them on a lead rein.

Alex Gordon from Minds and Manes added: 

It’s great to have started delivery of the Steady Strides project in collaboration with PKCT. The children are really bonding with the ponies – and the ponies are enjoying all the attention, grooming and walking that they are doing with the youngsters! Horses and ponies can be a real source of emotional support for people as they are very intuitive animals and being around them really enhances your wellbeing. We have asked the young people to describe how they are feeling at the start of the syllabus and will compare that with how they feel at the end of their sessions, which will help us evaluate the benefits of the initiative and inform the development of future programmes that we hope to run.

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030. 

As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives. 

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year (2023/24) The National Lottery Community Fund awarded over half a billion pounds (£686.3 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, supporting over 13,700 projects to turn their great ideas into reality. 

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk   

For further information and updates on the Steady Strides project, email [email protected] or follow Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust on social media.