Related Items Fauna Verbeek, riding King Arthur, says the Horses for Healing scheme has played a crucial role in her coping with depression. A scheme which uses horses to help people with mental illness gain confidence and relief has been put out to grass. Horses for Healing has operated in Whangarei for six years but a lack of funding has forced the volunteer-run group into recess, as of Friday. It was a sad day for the beneficiaries of the scheme and the tutors who have struggled to keep it going while the small stream of grants that literally fed the horses dried up. The volunteer-run service is free to users. Trustee Cathy McColl said Horses for Healing could no longer afford to pay rent to Whangarei Riding for the Disabled for its Barge Park facilities. Two of the trust's horses would be taken "home" and the third, which has been on loan from RDA, would stay at Barge Park. It was well documented that horses mirrored people's moods and picked up on body language and anxieties, Ms McColl said. Some Horses for Healing clients were very ill and were brought to the riding centre from the mental health unit at Whangarei Hospital or from community facilities. Others were "fully functioning" people but with a degree of depression or anxiety. Through interacting with the horses, clients who were not comfortable communicating with other people often gained an insight into their own behaviour and mood. The scheme offered a usually weekly respite