FASD Informed™ Equestrian Therapeutic Horsemanship & Alternative Provision
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Advanced, practice-focused training for equestrian and therapeutic horsemanship teams supporting children, young people and adults affected by prenatal alcohol exposure.
Become FASD Informed
Deepen your understanding and create a safer, more responsive environment for children and young people affected by prenatal alcohol exposure.
This programme takes you stage by stage adapting our established FASD Informed™ training specifically for therapeutic horsemanship, equestrian learning and supported alternative provision.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) can affect functioning across the lifespan and may remain hidden to the untrained eye. The FASD-Informed Stage 4 programme equips teams to look beyond presenting behaviour, identify risks that can otherwise be missed, and shape compassionate, evidence-informed support around each learner, the environment and the equine partnership.
Who is this programme for?
Therapeutic horsemanship and equine-assisted service practitioners
Alternative provision leaders, tutors and support teams
Designated safeguarding leads, SENCOs and inclusion leads
Equestrian coaches, yard teams and volunteers working with children and young people
Why this matters in equestrian provision
Young people with prenatal alcohol exposure or FASD may experience fluctuating capacity, slower processing, sensory differences, impulsivity, memory difficulties, confabulation and challenges with transitions.
In a yard, arena or outdoor learning environment, these needs can interact with changing routines, physical hazards, instructions, equipment, weather, animals and group dynamics. A standard behaviour-led response can therefore increase distress or overlook safeguarding concerns.
For example: Sirona Therapeutic Horsemanship describes primarily unmounted sessions built around groundwork, horse care, observation and stable activities, with any riding carefully risk-assessed and agreed through bespoke support plans.
Other Equestrian provider we have supported start the day with a photographic visual timetable before horse husbandry and equine activities. These familiar provider practices become more effective when staff understand how FASD may affect memory, sequencing, processing speed and the ability to transfer yesterday’s learning into today’s yard routine.
FASD-informed practice asks: “What does this child need?” rather than “What is wrong with this child?”
Our fresh-start approach considers every child or young person individually, without assumptions. It also keeps equine welfare central: support should be safe, appropriately paced and responsive to the needs of both human and equine participants.
What your team will learn
Apply the FASD lens to safeguarding, behaviour, communication and learning in equestrian settings
Recognise how fluctuating capacity and executive-function differences affect consent, participation and risk
Translate NICE FASD quality standards into reflective, person-centred practice
Build personalised plans that account for processing, sensory, relational and physical needs
Strengthen dynamic risk assessment for yards, arenas, off-site activities, transitions and changing routines
Respond proactively to escalation, aggression, shutdown, perseveration and confabulation
Define clear professional boundaries, roles and escalation routes for complex cases
Improve case management, recording and effective multi-agency working
Align safeguarding, service-user outcomes and equine welfare within a coherent quality framework
Stage 4 programme content
1. Quality standards and personalised care
Explore the NICE quality standard for FASD, including referral, neurodevelopmental assessment and management planning, and consider what high-quality, individualised support looks like within non-clinical equestrian and alternative provision.
2. Reflective safeguarding and risk
Examine hidden vulnerability, contextual safeguarding, fluctuating capacity and dynamic risk. Teams consider supervision, communication, incident patterns, missing information, physical environments, mounted and unmounted activity, transport and emergency planning.
3. Responsive therapeutic horsemanship practice
Adapt instructions, routines, environments and expectations to reduce cognitive load and support regulation. Use observation, repetition, visual structure, co-regulation and carefully planned transitions while protecting equine choice, welfare and appropriate workload.
Applied example: A learner may be able to complete a grooming sequence one week but becomes stuck when the horse, bay, staff member or order of tasks changes.
The team might reduce the task to one step at a time, use a photographic visual sequence, keep equipment in a consistent place, allow a quiet regulation break and record which prompts genuinely support independence.
Applied example: In ground-based leading work, a young person may repeat an instruction accurately yet not process the associated risk quickly enough when a pony changes direction. Staff can pause the activity, shorten the instruction, demonstrate it, check understanding through action rather than verbal agreement alone, and adjust staffing or the environment.
4. Case management and multi-agency working
Practise forming a shared understanding of need, recording evidence clearly, contributing to reviews and coordinating with families, education, health and social care. Case discussion turns learning into practical next steps for your own setting.
Applied example: Personalised education plans, regular updates, termly reports linked to learning or EHCP outcomes, and attendance at multi-agency meetings. Stage 4 helps teams add an FASD-informed layer to this process. For example, distinguishing “refusal” from overload, recording fluctuations rather than treating performance as fixed, and agreeing shared prompts across home, school and the equestrian setting.
Examples grounded in equestrian therapeutic practice
Groundwork and horse care: Providers including Space at Yaxley Manor Equestrian and Sirona Therapeutic Horsemanship use grooming, observation, stable tasks and horse-care routines to develop confidence, communication and responsibility. Training considers how to make those routines predictable without assuming skills have generalised.
Visual structure and manageable progression: Using a simple photographic visual timetable, staged discrete awards and regular declarative language feedback. Stage 4 explores how visual support, repetition and smaller goals can accommodate fluctuating capacity.
Personalised alternative curriculum: Space at Yaxley Manor Equestrian describe the program helped them to tune in and pause to shape individual strengths, needs and goals, with practical learning and recorded progress. Training helps teams set realistic outcomes that recognise neurodevelopmental differences.
Small-group and one-to-one work: Sirona described one-to-one or small-group delivery. Stage 4 considers when reduced group size, extra processing time or a quieter space may be a safeguarding adjustment rather than a reward.
Multi-agency communication: Attending TAC, CLA, PEP and other review meetings. Training supports clear evidence-sharing about triggers, successful adaptations, capacity fluctuations and emerging risk.
Programme structure and delivery
Stage 4 is delivered as a bespoke, bite-sized programme shaped around the children, families and horses you support. Sessions can be scheduled during working hours, out of hours or on INSET days, with timings adjusted to help the team engage at a manageable pace.
Live online delivery by an experienced, qualified team
Applied learning using anonymised scenarios from your setting
Structured reflection for leaders, safeguarding staff and practitioners
Optional 1:1 consultation and attendance at online meetings for stuck or complex cases
What participants receive
FASD Informed™ Stage 4 certification
Practical resources to support implementation and team reflection
Access to our FASD network of professionals
A clearer pathway towards becoming a FASD Responsive™ setting
What participants have told us
“So powerful. It gave my team confidence to say yes to many families supporting FASD. We now look through the FASD lens.” Sarah, Team Leader, DSL & SENCO
“It was a complete lightbulb moment. This training is not a box-ticking exercise; it changes how we understand and support every child.” James, Equine & Forest Leader
“Having our whole team become FASD Informed has made a huge difference to everything we do. It has changed the pace we take with children and young people and reinforced how vital it is to stay alongside them across their lifetime. Thanks to the team at FASD Informed for shining a light on FASD. By considering and ruling in prenatal alcohol exposure, we have learned that behaviours often communicate unmet needs that may have remained with a young person since leaving school environments. Once you recognise the signs and understand the profile, tuning in is everything.” Sirona Therapeutic Horsemanship
Evidence-informed and sector-aware
The programme reflects current UK FASD guidance and supports teams to consider safeguarding duties, professional scope, good governance and equine welfare. NICE quality standards guide quality improvement but do not replace individual clinical judgement, statutory responsibilities or your organisation’s policies and procedures.
Book a placeholder date
Start a conversation about a tailored FASD Informed™ Stage 4 programme for your therapeutic horsemanship or equestrian alternative provision team.
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