Animal Enrichment Sessions

Care for and interact with our farm animals

For people with disability

 

Our one-on-one ‘Animal Enrichment Sessions’ assist people of all ages to care for and interact with our farm animals in a safe and supportive environment.

Each session provides individualized instructions depending on the participants needs and confidence with animals.

Participants develop various life skills that help build self-esteem, confidence and shape positive behaviours.

Our experienced animal instructors and support workers provide social and emotional support with every session and tailor the activities to suit the needs of each participant.

Some of the benefits may include:

  • Improving mood
  • Developing communication skills to connect with others
  • Lowering anxiety and decreasing agitation
  • Encouraging self-expression
  • Decreasing isolation and depression

Our ‘Animal Enrichment sessions’ allow people to experience the benefits of a human-animal bond through fun and safe farmyard activities.

‘Our Backyard’ is home to a variety of farm animals including 3 miniature horses, a donkey, a horse, goats, several sheep, dogs, chickens, guinea fowl, ducks, peacocks and aviaries of budgies and cockatiels.

Learning how to communicate with animals using body language and caring for them and helping maintain their living environments, can help improve social engagement, self-esteem and self-efficacy.

Liberty Training in the Roundyard

Sunshine Butterflies also offers Liberty Training as part of our Animal Enrichment Sessions.

Liberty Training enables the participant to develop a true connection with the horse, pony or donkey by learning their language and becoming aware of how their body movement affects the animal’s behaviour.

You will learn how your moods, emotions and movements can affect the animal’s behaviour.

This learning can be as subtle or as deep as the person wants to go. Once a person makes that connection, they learn how to maintain this for longer periods of time and trust between both animal and human begins.

Sally Clay - Animal Carer

Sally Clay, our animal carer, is a very experienced horse trainer and horsemanship educator and has extensive experience in herd-based equine therapy programs.

  • Certificate III - Agriculture & Dairy
  • Certificate III - Individual Support, Home & Community Support
  • Cert 1 Australia Natural Horsemanship
  • Level 1 & 2 - Parelli Natural Horsemanship
  • Certified Instructor - Horse Trail Guide
  • Herd-Based Equine Therapy experience

If you are interested in booking an Animal Enrichment session with us, please send an enquiry or call us on 07 5470 2830.