Help Save Stable Life

Stable Life supports disadvantaged young people and their families who live in the Scottish Borders and who are experiencing personal challenges. Based at Dryden Farm, Ashkirk we utilise Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) and Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT), where working together, using the horse and its environment, we create the opportunity for young people to discover a sense of self, build resilience and learn transferable life skills. In doing so we empower our young people to look forward to a happy and healthy future where their contributions will be valued and their dreams and aspirations achieved.

Our overarching aim is to “work together to make a difference” We offer a calm, safe and caring environment where young people feel able to engage and share. We build trusting and respectful relationships so young people are better able to reflect on their current situation and develop positive coping strategies.

The difference we make

For some extremely vulnerable young people, working with the horse is the only motivating factor in their life and therefore is the only effective vehicle on which to build a more positive future. Over the last 5 years we have engaged with over 562 young people and we can say that:

• All have developed life skills and shown an improvement in resilience
  
• More than 85% showed increased self-confidence and self-belief
  
• 84% have improved relationships
  
• 49 young people have became volunteers
  
• 43 secured college placements

Feedback we receive also evidences the difference we can make:

"Thank you so very much, you have completely turned her around, it is fantastic the work you do."

“H has found a renewed confidence since attending Stable Life, she has thrived, her life had become so difficult with so much confusion, pain and anger, she was lost”

"Stable Life is the best thing I have ever done"

Our Problem

The work we do has a real impact and post Covid Stable Life is needed more than ever. Before Covid we were working with children between 10 and 18 years old, but now we are being asked to support youngsters as young as five. We are also seeing an increase in referrals for young people with increased levels of anxiety, struggling at school or non-attendance.

Up until this year we thrived thanks to a combination of our commercial riding school, grant applications, council funding, and donations but funding sources have dried up post-Covid, and we anticipate a long hard winter through which we need to keep our ponies safe, fed and healthy so we can provide our services.

 You can help us 

This Crowdfunder will hopefully provide some help from the community to enable us to continue to support young people who are referred to us in distress.

More fundraising will follow next year as we aim to raise £200k by April 2024 through a combination of grants, fundraising and sponsorship, with the ultimate aim of futureproofing the organisation for decades to come.  

With everybody’s support we know we can stay the course and come out even stronger and help change the lives of our young people.