Apologies for not getting the Keyway out earlier however I thought I would wait so I could thank everyone on behalf of myself and the family for the sympathy cards, kind words and attendance at Mary’s funeral. The care and support from you all are a testament to what a wonderful club we all belong to.
Our last dinner meeting was another enjoyable night and despite many people being away we had a surprisingly good turnout with a number of partners joining us along with guest and prospective member Shakir Sheikh.
Michelle Godsiff was our guest speaker for the evening and was ably introduced by Glenice Yeoman. The subject of Michelle’s presentation was “Whispering Hope” which is also the name of the enterprise that she and colleagues run to provide Equine Assisted Therapy for children and young people to help them develop better social, emotional and behavioural skills.
Michelle started her presentation giving us a brief history of her career and what brought her to becoming involved in the therapy field. She has a deep love and understanding of horses and the power that they have to influence human behaviour. As she said in the field of equine assisted therapy the horse is the actual therapist. She explained that as horses are prey animals, not predators, they have evolved to become sensitive and intuitive animals who are highly attuned to their environment. Because they live in herds, they are experts at reading each other’s body language and this translates to their reading of human body language as well. She went on to say that horses are non-judgemental and this soft acknowledgement and acceptance can have a powerful healing effect. Research studies have shown that Equine Assisted Therapy promotes feelings of relaxation and wellbeing.
There was lots of interaction of members and partners with Michelle both during and after her presentation and I am sure that we all learnt something new about these incredible animals. Very enjoyable!
Madeleine East kindly stepped in to run the meeting and even at short notice managed to extract a reasonable sum for the Sergeants fund. Thank you, Madeleine. And a big thank you to Glenice who with some help from Carole and John Savory was a “jill of all trades” on the night.
The raffle winners on the night were:
Have A Go – 1st Maureen Owen 2nd Glen Donaldson New World Voucher (only one) Geoff Thompson
A big reminder that there is no dinner meeting next Tuesday the 25th February. Coastguard have invited us all along with partners to their annual Thank You BBQ. Please arrive at 6:00pm if you would like to have ride in the boat with the BBQ starting at 7:00pm.
Take Care and Stay Well,
Rob Mouncey
President
