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“There’s a lot of legs” at the Fortune College near the New Forest
By Jecs Davies
Fortune College is unique. It’s the only horse-focused learning centre of its kind in the UK using horses to teach young adults with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
Walking through Fortune College in Avon Tyrell near Bransgore feels more like visiting a sanctuary than a college. There are students working in wellies, chatting and caring for the horses as though they are family.
The College is part of the Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy, it is a place for people aged 16-25 with Special Educational Needs. It is funded through local authority Education, Health and Care plans.
Su Hodgkiss, a member of staff, explained that most of the 36 pupils are residential. “They tend to start at Fortune at either 16 or 19, when they have finished their GCSEs or A-Levels.”
Fortune College is unique in many ways. It offers three years of Further Education Through Horsemastership (FETH) which helps students with riding and horse care, independent living skills and literacy and numeracy.
One of the most interesting aspects of the centre and the FETH course is the use of behavioural transfers as a form of teaching. The staff relate caring for the 17 horses to students’ own wellbeing. For example, they are taught that it is important to wash their hair like they would wash a horse’s hair. This also helps the pupils to adapt socially.
“Horses have boundaries which show pupils that they should have boundaries both face-to-face and on the Internet,” said Mrs Hodgkiss. “And there’s a lot of legs. They can help with literacy and numeracy sessions. For instance, we might ask one of the students to count the legs of the horses.”
Sophie is a third-year student at Fortune College. She spoke about everything she has learned since starting and how she has grown in confidence: “When I first came, I was very withdrawn, but the staff are really nice and they taught me that a silly question is not a stupid question.”
She also spoke about her weekly schedule. Fortune operates seven days a week, five of these in the college, one day out in the community to do shopping and learn how to budget, and one day for rest or other planned activities.
A normal college day starts at 7.15am, but the students don’t mind. Sophie said: “It’s so worth getting up early to see the sunrise.”
Another area of the curriculum at Fortune College is doing exercises on horseback and rhythmic work which is walking in time with the horses and completing verbal tasks.
“Many students are more articulate when they’re on a horse,” said Su.
Fortune also has a mechanical horse called Trigger, named after the emotional triggers that horse riding can have. It is good for pupils just beginning to ride or even for more experienced horse riders to practise in bad weather.
There are four yards which students progress through during their time at college, Sophie said: “Different yard, different horses, different students.”
It is Sophie’s final year at Fortune, “I will be very sad to leave,” she said, but she has found a work placement at a new stable in London and is excited to start there.
The Fortune College is indeed unique and brings out the best in students who have a strong love of horses.
