The Berkshire Animal Connection Centre

Today, The Berkshire Animal Connection Centre provides sanctuary to a number of horses, ponies, donkeys and goats.   In 2024, we will expand the Charitable Objectives to include our long-awaited vision of offering Equine Assisted Services (EAS).   The following information outlines our intended Vision and Mission, with further details about EAS and it’s benefits. 

BACC – THE PURPOSE

BACC provides a sanctuary to animals, and a safe space for people to benefit from therapeutic interaction with them.

Sanctuary – The majority of our animals come to us unwanted, abused or abandoned. We provide them with an environment that allows them to thrive naturally under our care for the rest of their lives.

Equine Assisted Services – the calming natures of the animals at BACC can support people suffering from a range of emotional, mental, physical and social problems. Building relationships with our animals enables therapeutic healing and wellbeing, under the guidance of qualified facilitators.

HISTORY

The Berkshire Animal Connection Centre (BACC) was set up in October 2020 as an animal sanctuary, predominantly for horses and ponies, and has expanded to include Goats and Miniature Donkeys.

VISION

It has always been our vision to:

• Provide education on animal welfare and behaviour primarily to children and young people
• Provide Animal Assisted Services such as Equine Facilitated Learning and Psychotherapy
• To welcome volunteers to the Sanctuary to help support them with their mental health and well-being

MISSION

The mission is to provide sanctuary for animals who are unwanted, abused or abandoned and to provide a safe space for people of all ages, ethnicities and identities to experience and benefit from the therapeutic engagement with our gentle, intuitive, sentient, and non-judgemental animals.

THE ANIMALS at BACC

The majority of our animals come to us from unwanted, abused or abandoned backgrounds, including from existing charities.   Our aim is to provide all our animals with as natural environment as possible given that they are domesticated animals.  The horses live in herds allowing them friends, forage and freedom and they are cared for in line with the recognised ‘Five Freedoms’ and ‘Five Domains’: 

• Freedom from hunger and thirst
• Freedom from discomfort
• Freedom from pain, injury or disease
• Freedom to express normal behaviour
• Freedom from fear and distress

The Five Domains are set out as:-

• Nutrition
• Environment
• Health
• Behavioural Interactions
• Mental State/Experience

The Five Domains explore the mental state of animals in more detail and reinforce the message that emotional needs are equally as important as physical needs. They enable the evaluation of the welfare of an individual or group of animals and focus on providing opportunities for animals to experience or engage in activities that provide positive experiences.

At BACC our focus is to uphold the ethos of the Five Domains and support all our animals by providing an interesting and enriched living environment.
 

EQUINE ASSISTED SERVICES

Equine Assisted Services (EAS) is an umbrella term that includes education, learning, psychotherapy and coaching as part of the human-equine interactions which take place during sessions with clients.

At BACC we will offer equine assisted learning and wellbeing sessions to children, young people and adults in our local community.  Working with our rescue horses and ponies gives clients an opportunity to understand what difficult earlier lives they have experienced and how they have been able to heal and grow since coming to the Sanctuary.  This helps clients to learn about themselves and the world they live in by experiential learning and helps to develop empathy and understanding of their own lives.

As an animal welfare charity the health and happiness of all our animals is paramount in everything we do and they are important and equal partners in our work.

Enjoying the peaceful setting of the Sanctuary and spending time with the animals at BACC can help people with mental, physical and social problems.  Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) is a learning approach that promotes the development of life skills for educational, professional and personal goals with ground-based activities.  Building a relationship with a horse helps clients to recognise patterns of behaviour that may be having a negative impact on their lives.   

Our offering will be unique and will incorporate mindfulness, breathwork, and working with a group of horses to provide solution-focused and client-led outcomes. Those outcomes look at managing stress and anxiety, improving mental health and well-being and increasing confidence and self-esteem. 

Our team of facilitators are all qualified in equine facilitated learning and/or psychotherapy, have completed specialist training and hold accredited qualifications with either LEAP Equine or Athena Herd.

We are a fully inclusive organisation and work with children, teenagers and adults and will facilitate several different programmes such as Equi-scholars and Project HORSES.  We will also design bespoke programmes for specific requirements.