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.
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 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 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.
