{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Equine Assisted World with Rupert Isaacson","title":"100 Children, No Bookings—and Nobody Turned Away | Helen Picha | EAW 60","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":6762,"description":"✨ \"It's not about the job or the wages. You have to love it with absolute passion.\" – Helen Picha\nHelen Picha manages Liskennett Farm, a groundbreaking equine-assisted therapy center for children and adults with autism and intellectual disabilities in Granagh, County Limerick, Ireland, on the border of Limerick and Cork. She took over as manager two years ago after eleven years working alongside founder David Doyle, and now runs the 80-acre center — home to 23 horses across residential, day, and equine programs — that Rupert calls the cutting edge of best practice in equine-assisted therapy.\nWhat sets Liskennett apart is scale paired with radical openness. Every Saturday, the farm runs a booking-free, fee-free open day that draws between 80 and 100 children, no appointment required, no family turned away. Its indoor arena, originally built for riding, has been repurposed entirely into a music, movement, and play space, because the horses and children preferred being outdoors. And many of Liskennett's horses are retired Thoroughbred racehorses, some placed at Cheltenham, brought down from the racing circuit through a careful, months-long retraining process before ever carrying a child.\nIn this conversation, Helen and Rupert trace Liskennett's origin story — from a 2012 Horse Boy demo, a young woman's tragic death, and a €3 million donation to a modern therapy campus — and dig into how the farm actually runs day to day: horse selection and retraining, staff burnout prevention, community integration through an inclusive fox hunt and horse show, and Liskennett's expansion into new satellite centers backed by €6 million in Irish government funding.\nIf you want to support the show, you can do so at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHome\n🔍 What You'll Learn in This EpisodeHow Liskennett Farm evolved from an 80-acre burned-out stud farm into a state-of-the-art residential, day, and equine therapy hub serving hundreds of children and adults with autism and...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/PuJAXgaKmhfeBRqqEPEATMHDH_c-iN9O1OlaUtqD0-g/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzQwMDI3LzE2ODI0/MjQ0MTQtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}