Integration in nature forging compassionate relationships in the Borders

"It’s powerful being in your own reflective state, and that’s where our horses come in - they’re the teachers in all of this."

Eat Sleep Ride are an innovative third sector organisation providing services and support on the principles of integration. By bringing people together across the Scottish Borders, the organisation highlight nature as having powerful therapeutic qualities that are not only beneficial for our health, but can reflect the importance of working collaboratively when overcoming barriers and creating strong and trusting relationships.

Based on the lived experience of founder Danielle McKinnon, Eat Sleep Ride demonstrate the health benefits of connecting with horses and nature, whilst addressing social needs through training, work experience, employment, volunteering, counselling, and peer support. 

The main beneficiaries include isolated families, young people experiencing trauma, and adults struggling with their mental health, which led Danielle to promote therapy around horses and nature as an innovative approach to achieving better health and social outcomes.

“You can speak your true self to a horse, which is why our therapy is done with horses and around nature”, Danielle says. “It’s so authentic because horses don’t care what you look like or what you have to say – they care about the inner being.”

In line with this, the organisation utilise herd observation to analyse the fostering of relationships in horses, whilst highlighting the benefits of staying closely connected and working collaboratively in integrated ways.

“As a social herd animal, horses don’t scatter in times of trouble”, Danielle continued. “They trust their herd and navigate uncertainty together by moving with congruence, which is the biggest learning curve for the kids, given we have an education system in which we have to pass or fail.” 

Eat Sleep Ride are an organisation committed to securing better health and social outcomes for their community, with this including cultural change in the form of climate action, as well as putting people at the centre to showcase the benefits of integrated practices, such as partnership working and fostering authentic relationships.

“Generally, we only use ethical and sustainable resources so we can continue to highlight our stance on climate change”, Danielles says. “A lot of the community activities we do are centred around food, climate change, music, and bringing people together where they can socialise.”

With integration at the heart, one of these events was a ‘Be Yourself’ day, which was initiated by the young people involved and encouraged them to think creatively, be resilient in overcoming challenges, and forge strong relationships built on compassion and understanding.

“One girl focused on conversations around mental health by asking adults how they would help her if they saw her in a state of panic”, Danielle says. “This was a great way of breaking through a barrier by ensuring adults could provide examples of how they could help if she was struggling, so it was a great initiative.”

Eat Sleep Ride have supported around 300 young people to take positive steps towards further education or employment through therapeutic interventions, which Danielle attributes to the healing qualities of nature that have assisted them in overcoming barriers and building empathetic relationships in line with the themes of integration.

“I think that having to get up everyday and show your real self is really beneficial because you recognise what you can and can’t do”, Danielle says. “It’s powerful being in your own reflective state, and that’s where our horses come in as they’re consistently showing us how to behave – they’re the teachers in all of this.”

If you want to find out more about Eat Sleep Ride, you can do so by visiting their website here: https://www.eatsleeprides.org