Horses for Causes is a not-for-profit organisation with a simple belief: time spent with horses can change lives.

We deliver Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) programs for people experiencing social, emotional, physical, or psychological hardship – with a special place in our hearts for young people who are doing it tough. Horses have an extraordinary ability to promote physical, emotional, and cognitive growth in humans. They provide learning interactions that are literally ‘beyond words’.

Through our programs, participants build emotional regulation, self-awareness, self-efficacy*, and conscious communication skills – the foundations of connection, wellbeing, and belonging.

We work in partnership with schools, youth services, community organisations, and health providers, and subsidised and fully funded places are available for those who need them most. We also offer leadership and team-building programs for businesses – and every dollar of surplus from these programs is reinvested into funded places for people experiencing disadvantage.

All programs involve non-ridden, ground-based interactions with horses. Our work is Equine Assisted Learning – not ‘therapy’ and is intended to augment and support other therapeutic interventions.

‘Experiential learning’ (especially with horses) provides not only immediate reprieve from life’s challenges, but faster ways to engage, regulate and learn, compared with talking therapies alone.

The programs are delivered by experienced facilitators within clear scope-of-practice boundaries.

Note: * Self-efficacy is the belief in your own ability to succeed in specific situations. It is built through four primary sources: mastery of experiences (successfully completing tasks), observing social role models succeed, imaginal experiences (visualising success), and managing emotional/physiological states (e.g., regulating anxiety).