Young Adult Provision resident Joel managed to go horse-riding for the first time on a community visit on Wednesday, 16 October - following weeks of gentle encouragement and support from his staffing team in Robin Cottage.

Joel has been visiting Little Hidden Farm in Hungerford for riding lessons weekly since the start of September - he moved up to our Young Adult Provision from our School over the summer.

Before heading out for each session, staff members in Robin Cottage have been talking to Joel about horseriding a lot, to get him to feel excited about the session and what to expect. Horseriding was always on Joel's schedule for the day for him to be aware the visit was happening (schedules being a key aspect of our autism approach).

And his visit on Wednesday, 16 October was the first time he managed to get on the horse - the photos tell the story of how he felt about it:

Clare, Robin Cottage Care Manager, said: "Staff said that Joel was really happy about it when he returned to Robin afterwards, lots of smiles and giggling and really enjoying staff celebrating his achievement with him.  

"Little Hidden Farm were great letting Joel walk with the horses when he didn’t feel ready to get on."

Huge congratulations to all of the Robin team for their help, plus Mariam, Adi and Ahmed who supported Joel on Wednesday's successful visit and Dominika from Joel's former Prior's Court residential home, Spring House, who also came to a session to help Joel adjust.