‘Coaching for change’: trainers asked to come together to support mental health

Equestrian coaches are being asked to come together for a new campaign to raise awareness of the importance of speaking about mental health.

Riders Minds is seeking 1,000 trainers to take part in the “coaching for change” campaign next month. Each is asked to donate an amount of time of their choice, by organising a training clinic, with the proceeds going to the charity.

Riders Minds was founded in 2019 by the late eventer Matthew Wright and his wife Victoria, with support from a number of companies, and with the British Grooms Association and Equestrian Employers Association acting as consultants. The award-winning organisation, which gained charitable status in February 2022, provides a free online resource designed to improve and support the mental health and wellbeing of equestrians across the sport.

A Riders Minds spokesman said the new campaign, which coincides with World Mental Health Day on 10 October, will also raise awareness of the importance of speaking about mental health, and the support available through the charity’s website, text line and free confidential phone service.

“We are incredibly proud of the work that Riders Minds has done so far, but we know that there are still some equestrians who either don’t know about us, or feel that they can’t reach out,” he said.

“Coaches are quite often a centre point in their own community, and with their help we can continue to and let even more people know about the resources that are available to all.”

The charity asks that coaches are fully insured – and the sessions can take place at any point during October, ridden, on the ground, or via online learning, in any equestrian sphere.

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