From Horses to Hope: Our 2025 Impact Report

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From Horses to Hope

We are proud to share the Eat Sleep Ride Annual Impact Report 2025, highlighting a year of growth, learning, and meaningful community impact.

Eat Sleep Ride is built on a simple belief: that horses, land and community can create powerful opportunities for connection, confidence and leadership. From our rural site in the Scottish Borders – a reclaimed former landfill – we bring together rescued horses, young people, volunteers and families to create learning that is relational, ethical and grounded in real responsibility.

Supporting Young People to Build Confidence and Skills

Our core focus is supporting young people facing disadvantage, including those affected by anxiety, neurodiversity, care experience, rural isolation and disengagement from education. Through equine-assisted learning, youth awards and structured volunteering pathways, we help young people build confidence, develop leadership skills and move toward education, employment and positive futures.

In 2025 alone:

  • Over 400 participants engaged with Eat Sleep Ride programmes and activities

  • 8 young people aged 14–20 were supported into employment opportunities

  • 36 free ASN sessions were delivered

  • 40 subsidised sessions helped ensure access for families experiencing financial pressure

  • 88 new riders joined the programme

Each number in the report represents a real story of growth, belonging and resilience.

Horses at the Heart of Learning

Horses are central to the Eat Sleep Ride approach. Their presence provides immediate, honest feedback that helps participants develop self-awareness, emotional regulation and trust.

During the past year:

  • 8 horses were rehabilitated

  • 3 horses successfully transitioned into new homes

These relationships support not only equine welfare but also human wellbeing, demonstrating a powerful dual impact – improving lives for both people and horses.

Building Leadership Through Connection

Eat Sleep Ride continues to grow a number of flagship programmes designed to support leadership, wellbeing and participation across all ages.

These include:

Empower Her – a hybrid leadership and wellbeing programme for women and girls combining online sessions with experiential learning alongside horses.

Youth Leadership and Awards Pathway – supporting young people through accredited learning, mentoring opportunities and volunteering that builds real responsibility and employability skills.

Intergenerational Volunteering for All – bringing together people of different ages to learn from each other while caring for horses, land and community spaces.

Herd Dynamics – our equine-inspired leadership programme exploring shared leadership, collaboration and communication through experiential learning in nature.

Together these programmes create environments where individuals can grow in confidence, build supportive relationships and develop practical leadership skills.

Community Wellbeing and Real-Life Change

The report also highlights powerful case studies demonstrating the long-term impact of relational work.

One young person who first came to Eat Sleep Ride at the age of ten, following significant childhood trauma, has progressed through youth awards, mentoring roles and leadership opportunities to become a confident young leader supporting others in the programme.

These stories show the importance of consistent, long-term support in rural communities, where services are often limited and young people can easily fall through the gaps.

Sustainability and Environmental Innovation

Alongside community programmes, Eat Sleep Ride continues to develop innovative environmental work on site.

Key developments this year include:

  • Installation of 25 additional solar panels, increasing renewable energy generation

  • Rainwater harvesting systems to support sustainable land management

  • Biodiversity improvements including native planting and habitat creation

  • Development of a biofuel project in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, exploring the conversion of horse manure into sustainable fuel bricks

These initiatives demonstrate how environmental stewardship can sit alongside social impact.

Thank You

The impact captured in this report would not be possible without the support of our volunteers, partners, funders and community members who believe in the work.

Every contribution – whether time, expertise, funding or encouragement – helps create a ripple of change that extends far beyond our site.

Together we are proving that connection, responsibility and community can transform lives.

📄 Read the full Eat Sleep Ride Impact Report 2025 here Horses to Hope