The Ranch Weymouth launches bid for Goat Yoga classroom
It started offering animal therapies last year to get people to connect with nature after lockdown
The Ranch in Weymouth wants to start offering its goat yoga classes indoors.
The outdoor space started offering goat yoga and other animal therapy sessions at the end of the 2021 after lockdown as a way of encouraging people to embrace nature again.
Now, they're raising £6,000 so they can offer the sessions indoors too, and provide a more consistent all-weather service.
Their therapies include goat yoga, equine therapy and a reptile room experience.
The Ranch now says it wants to expand to offer even more to the community, particularly school groups and clubs.
Iain Woodbridge is one of the founders. He said:
"The classroom is going to mean we can carry on the therapy work and we can expand who we're offering it to.
"At the moment we are held down by the weather and the timing of the year. This classroom will allow us to deliver all over the year.
"The therapy work has been really successful but to carry on and push forward we really need to have an indoor space so that we can do some proper education work and that we can carry on supporting the local community."
Last year we sent our reporter, George Sharpe, down to the Ranch to show us what's involved.
Iain added:
"By being outside and connecting with the animals it can help you improve your mental health and your emotional well-being and the therapy of the animals achieves a good harmony and promotes healthier community and a healthier mindset.
"We're looking to deliver the therapy side, do groups of mindfulness, and we are also now looking to try to offer educational packages to some of the local community schools and some of the local groups such as the Scouts and the Brownies."
If you'd like to find out more about the Ranch fundraising campaign, you can do so here.