Horsemanship for Health

Wisdom, Wonder and Well-being

Horsemanship for Health is a registered UK Community Interest Company, incorporated in 2016, company number 10111911. The directors are Belinda Seaward, Donna Poade and Andrea Nicol. We hold advanced DBS certificates and are insured with public liability of £2 million. As a community well-being provider, we hold a Quality Assurance Award endorsed by Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust and Teignbridge Community and Voluntary Service.

Our team

Belinda Seaward is a teacher who studied Philosophy and Psychology at Middlesex University and gained a Postgraduate Certificate of Education from Exeter University. She has taught in secondary and adult education for more than 20 years. She trained in therapeutic horsemanship with Horses Helping People in Buckinghamshire and completed courses with LEAP and Miranda Carey. Her substantial experience of working with horses and people includes a track record of successfully delivering education, health and well-being projects in partnership with NHS teams, the Royal Marines and Navy and schools. Belinda is an accredited Compassion Circle Facilitator and her many hours of professional development training also include suicide attention, advanced coaching and mentoring and compassionate inquiry. She is a fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, completing a year-long programme in 2015. She is a published author and speaker. In 2018, she gave a TEDx talk at Plymouth University about the healing power of horses.

Andrea Nicol’s love of horses began at a young age, but it wasn’t until her mid 40’s that she truly understood their power to heal. Andrea came into horse ownership late in life during a particularly difficult time. Her horse, aptly named Spirit, showed her what happiness looked like when she never thought she would see it again. Andrea’s life has had its fair share of emotional challenges – she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019 and one of her sons was also diagnosed with cancer the following year. Andrea says: ‘During my journey, Spirit was always there, giving me a peaceful and safe space. I owe much of my survival strength to her and was devastated when I had to say goodbye to her, all too early. Moving on five years and I am almost officially in remission, with another beautiful soul by my side, Essie. It is a privilege to be part of Belinda’s team at Horsemanship for Health where I hope we can share our love and understanding of these wonderful animals with others. They are true healers of the heart and mind.’

Becci Hall leads our community garden. Her love of gardening started because of her desire to help animals and nature. She has a foundation degree in Animal Science, Wildlife Conservation which has helped shape her principles in the way she gardens, with biodiversity being at the heart of this. She has struggled with her mental health due to childhood trauma. Becci says: ‘Gardening has given me great relief from these struggles. Planting seeds gives me hope for the future when I feel like there isn’t any. I love all the benefits that community gardening offers. From being able to switch my mind off by pulling out weeds to the connections you make with people who genuinely understand the struggles you face.’

Rosie Bewley first came to Horsemanship for Health as a student through her own journey to recovery. She has taught across both primary and secondary education for nearly 20 years in the UK and abroad, with a degree in English from Oxford University and a postgraduate degree in Education.  Through teaching English, Art, Drama and pretty much everything else, she held a strong focus on the well-being and personal development of students throughout.  A teaching interval for a course in Speech and Language Therapy brought her to Devon, where she met her wife of 11 years and so she stuck around in this beautiful part of the country.  In 2020 she left teaching due to trauma-induced mental health issues and found Horsemanship for Health through the Devon Recovery Learning Community website.  She felt an immediate benefit from the beauty of working with the horses and the shared healing in the compassion circles.  She now feels privileged to volunteer with the team in helping to provide this support for others, and looks forward to being part of future developments for this powerful work.

Donna Poade is a senior lecturer in well-being at Falmouth University and has extensive experience in evaluating mental health initiatives and is currently training to be a psychotherapist. She came to Horsemanship for Health through Recovery Devon who funded a project entitled ‘Evaluating Encounters with Horses’ where she witnessed the transformation of people towards recovery through the unique connection with the ponies and horses at Horsemanship for Health. Her passion for the project and report on the effectiveness of equine assisted education helped to raise awareness and sealed the relationship between Donna and Horsemanship for Health. She is a passionate advocate of mental health awareness and recovery, born from her own lived experiences of anxiety and depression which has continued throughout her life with varying intensities. In her adult years she was diagnosed with complex PTSD (C-PTSD) which has affected her life greatly and is often a poorly understood condition. Donna is committed to learning more about mental health to further understand and help others towards recovery to lead healthy and happy lives.

Emma Dando joined us as a volunteer after attending one of our Devon Recovery Learning Community courses. Emma has lived experience of mental health challenges and her kind, honest and open-hearted way of being puts new people at ease when they arrive. Emma supports our recovery retreats and puts in many hours of hard work caring for the horses every day, also working in the garden and on the land. The horses adore Emma’s patient, thorough and consistent approach.

Wayne Pengilly has lived experience of mental health challenges and was initially referred to us through the community mental health team. Wayne now volunteers and he is a force of nature: talented, energetic, funny and a fantastically hard worker with many creative ideas. He has worked as a butcher, builder, landscape gardener, steel erector, double glazing fitter and care support worker for a decade, working closely with young people with emotional and behavioural challenges, including three years supporting non-verbal autistic adults. All our dogs love Wayne!

Advisory Board

We are fortunate to be supported by a team of professionals from many different spheres. Our friends, supporters and advisers include: Kate Sandel, who runs a highly successful equine business, devoted to training horses in harmony with humans. Kate is a highly principled practitioner who believes in working with respect for the horse’s physical and mental well-being – with the aim of improving both. Kate is our equine adviser. More about Kate’s work here: https://softandsound.org/about-kate/

After meeting at a conference, we took a nine-month deep dive coaching education journey with Liz Scott and Stuart Newberry, who have worked with schools, high profile clients and businesses across Devon, and internationally. More about their work here: https://innercompassguide.com/liz-and-stuart/

Belinda’s journey towards educating her own Arabian horses began with the loss of her close friend Steve to suicide. As someone with lived experience of loss through suicide, she is passionate about breaking down barriers to talking about suicide. She met Chukumeka Maxwell, founder of Action to Prevent Suicide, at a conference and they became friends and colleagues, who support each other’s enterprises. More about Chukes here: https://www.tellingourstoriesdevon.org.uk/exeter-community-stories/2021/chukumeka-maxwell-interview.