What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 6pm Tuesday 9am - 6pm Wednesday 9am - 6pm Thursday 9am - 6pm Friday 9am - 6pm Saturday 9am - 6pm Sunday 9am - 6pm

Hairy Henry

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Hairy Henry

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Hairy Henry offers Therapeutic Riding, Care Farming and Animal-assisted Therapy to children and adul All have been trained specifically for this job.

We offer Therapeutic Riding sessions and Care Farm activities on our small farm in West Cork. Our team consists of Sandra, a fully qualified Therapeutic Riding Coach with 28 years experience of working with horses and 24 years of working in the health and social sector, and our extremely friendly and experienced therapy horses, Henry, Winnie, Flora, Daisy and Dolly, and lots of other farm animals - our two dogs Trudi and Turnip, the flock of sheep - Sean, Otto, Tilda, Harriet and Mr. Lammy, the donkeys Nell, Eeyore, Gordon and Gulliver the geese and ducks and chicken and the rabbits Alex and Oreo and their families. We also offer animal-assisted therapeutic outreach visitis with our team of dogs, rabbits, sheep and donkey to nursing homes and hospitals - please get in touch for more information! Animal-assisted Therapy, Therapeutic Riding and Care Farming promote well-being, social confidence, sense of purpose and achievement - and offer long-lasting physical, psychological, social and educational benefits. Please, see our website www.hairyhenry.com for more details!

05/11/2026

Taking it slow to get to know everyone on the farm 🐷 Most of Bubble & Squeak's new family are so much bigger than them, so a protective fence between them for a start is a good idea...but everyone is curious and interested, and in general, we are a friendly little family of farm creatures who offer respect and companionship to anyone who's brave enough to join us 😄

05/11/2026

Professional standards are at the top of the list here at Hairy Henry's. Being approved by AIRE Association of Irish Riding Establishments means a lot to us as it shows that we comply with the highest safety and welfare standards and offer a professional service to our customers that supports them in their skill progression, physical and cognitive development, emotional and mental and social welfare, and enjoyment of riding.
Combined with Accredited Professional Coach membership with the British Horse Society, registration with CORU and Child and Family Agency - Tusla and the Teaching Council this gives a solid backbone to our services, ensuring that our customers get quality for money in a safe, supportive environment.
But all this doesn't come for free - there is additional training involved, CPD standards have to be met, insurance standards have to be conformed with, endless forms have to be filled, the yard and animals have to be kept in top condition, staff members have to be paid.
Our overheads have shot up sky high and trips to the feed store have become a dizzying experience.
On top of this, we have been landed with a rather substantial commercial rates bill by Cork County Council - we have challenged it for 2 years but lost our case, so there is a backlog of 2 years' rates to be cleared.
To sum it up - we are very proud of what we have built here and want to continue offering a service that is of high standard and effective and beneficial for your customers, but if we want to keep going, we have to look at our fees and are left with no choice but to put them up by the end of this year. We know very well that this will have a knock on effect to our customers and we are not happy about it, but unfortunately we will have to update our fees on our booking site from next month onwards.
Thanks in advance for your understanding.

04/11/2026

One I meant to post last week, Henry looks very handsome with his Halloween hairstyle 🕷🕸🦇🎃 He is delighted with his weekly sessions with Timmy who's been coming here for so many years now I lost count.
It is so rewarding be working with riders over a long period of time, supporting a trusting relationship between horse and rider, and being given the opportunity to help riders on-goingly to access the many benefits of therapeutic riding.

03/11/2026

One of our favourite places Trudi used to visit with Turnip, me and the horses. Now there's an empty space next to Turnip that no other creature will ever fill like she did. We hold such fond memories, at least we have those.
We miss you Trudi. 2 months gone now.

03/11/2026

Where would I be without the ever lasting patience and acceptance of my animals.
Stuck in town with flat trailer tyre for quite a while.....we had set off 8.45pm for training and we are just back now 🙄 Thirsty, hungry and a full dose of banging and yanking noises to get the tyre off...well done Skye for taking it all in. Turnip took the opportunity to have a snooze in the sun, he's good at that!Thanks to everyone for your assistance, that last nut was very stubborn indeed! And that's my afternoon off well spent 🥲

03/11/2026

💫 Bookings now open for this year's Christmas event at the Hairy Henry Care Farm on 6th December 💫
Please go here to reserve a space:
www.itsplainsailing.com/org/hairyhenry
€25 per child, babies and adults go free!

02/11/2026

It's only a hobby for us, but all the same, training never stops when you seek to improve in competitive sports. Exposure to as many different settings and situations to train for surefootedness, self reliance, independent thinking in the horse, build trust and confidence and positive memories between horse and rider, and keep fit, agile and brave as a rider, is the best way to keep training fun, interesting and balanced.
Photos from last week's outing at the Carbery Hunt Fun Hack.. ...sure we had out dose of fun 😊

01/11/2026

A few more from Friday's outing to Kinsale Community Hospital.....
Turnip and Twig know who has the best biscuits and is happy to share, and Squeak got a good introduction, with steady experienced partners by his side. He took his first trip in the lift with bravery, and wasn't bothered by the, for a pig, rather unusual surroundings. Happy to tag along and learn on the job. His innate cuteness and friendliness help him win hearts in split moments, and he kept his squeaks to a minimum, knowing that they are the last resort in pig-human communication, due to the noise level 🤣 gentle grunting usually is efficient enough 🐽

01/11/2026

Amazing three days with these amazing campers!
Skye was delighted to have so many new riders, the scarecrow was delighted to get his Halloween pumpkin friend, Flora was not so delighted that she was asked to bob for her apples, but the children were...and gave their apples to Flora 😊 So all is good, and we all went home with good memories and smiles.
Special thanks to our BHS students Matilda and Megan, who gave some of their work experience time to help with the camps. You were fab, and I bet the fun factor added to your skills set, too!

31/10/2026

Have a safe Halloween everyone 🎃

And please go easy on those firecrackers, why not leave them unlit altogether ....

Address

Ballylickey
Bantry
P75AV82

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 6pm
Tuesday	9am - 6pm
Wednesday	9am - 6pm
Thursday	9am - 6pm
Friday	9am - 6pm
Saturday	9am - 6pm
Sunday	9am - 6pm

Telephone

+353879389867

Website

http://www.hairyhenry.com/

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