By John Madden
Across the country there are several horse projects in operation. One such project is the Offaly Traveller Movement (OTM). The project began as a six-month pilot scheme and after a successful trial run; it was decided to continue it and to roll out a separate one in Laois. These began in 2011 and 2012 respectively, and, like any major project, it is also important to take some time to reflect on its successes, shortcomings and future plans. This year, OTM men’s health worker Frank Kavanagh and horse project facilitator Lesley Jones spearheaded the review and created the 2017 Horse Project Review alongside key member Michael Dooley. The review was presented in OTM’s main office in Tullamore in mid-October to a packed audience. The trio gave a detailed account of the project’s achievements over the past six years, using some of the amazing images you see here.
Following the presentation, we caught up with Lesley and Frank before they galloped off for the day. Here’s what they had to say.
Frank lets us know about the importance of the project:
It is of huge importance for a wide range of reasons, a huge part of it relates to positive mental health because simply put, it brings men together. When we were compiling the Horse Project Review I was doing interviews with Traveller men from across the county and I would have asked them the same question about why it was important to them. The same kind of answers came back, that it was part of Traveller culture, that it was something they could take pride in, that it was something that would help them come together to talk about life and discuss things about horses and that it gave them a sense of belonging. A lot of the men said to me that is was important to them as they had sons who were either interested in, or already involved with horses. This gave the men the chance to teach and pass on the knowledge that they had gained from years of experience of working around horses.
In terms of mental health, it was of great benefit as it got many of the men out of the house and involved in a group. One significant example of how effective it has been in regard to mental health was when one man opened up to me about suffering from depression, he genuinely thought he was the only one who was experiencing depression but when he came into the group and got talking about the things in his life he realised that he was speaking to somebody living with the same issues. That alone shows the significance of how important these projects are.
Leslie’s hopes for the future of the project:
We’d love to be a position to bring in loads more groups from the wider population to learn a bit more about Traveller culture and about horses. As well as that we could introduce equine therapy and equine-assisted learning but for all that to happen we need the proper space. If this was to happen we could do more training, not just with horses but around mental health, and anything else we could interlink with the horses. Like Frank said, it is all about bringing people together and getting them out of isolation. On our wish list there’d be a few acres, stables, training rooms, a meeting room and somewhere to have a mug of tea because as we all know, a lot can happen over a mug of tea. It could be a place, not just for the horses but a place that would promote Traveller culture, and who knows, it could even draw some tourists in.
It’s clear that these types of projects have so much to give, we are all very much aware of the lack of opportunities for Traveller men out there and recently we’ve seen the shocking figures around suicide in the Traveller community. It is through projects like this that we have people coming together, talking, working and communicating; which as we know, in this day and age is so important.
