A CHARITY with a strong record in rehabilitating young offenders has set up shop near Cirencester.

Dorset based charity TheHorseCourse, which is now located at Horseplay Central off the A417, helps ease Britain’s most violent young men back into society.

It has been recognised as an exemplar for its work with young offenders, showing a 27 per cent point reduction against predicted reoffending rates among the most high risk and difficult to reach men.

The horse experts use their trade to engage the troubled young men and steer them out of their patterns of behaviour.

Harriet Laurie, founder and CEO of the charity, said: “This is a rapid and effective way to help young people learn and practice positive skills like clear communication, calmness, chunking down problems, staying focused. They practice good habits in an intense situation and the evidence shows that they can take that back into ‘real life’.

“It’s like learning to swim - once you get the hang of it, you naturally keep improving. If young people are struggling to make progress though talk based help, we can offer an engaging and practical alternative.”

Lord Jim Knight, former minister for schools and learners is patron of TheHorseCourse.

“We know that talk-based interventions do not work with everyone," he said. "We know that activity-based nterventions can be very good at engaging those difficult to reach people, but don't always achieve hard outcomes," he said.

"TheHorseCourse is a truly innovative intervention that has big, proven impacts with the most difficult people - using a carefully designed and evidenced programme to make best use of the action-learning opportunity.”