A.S.D. Oasi di Scacco e Hope, Oasi di benessere equestre

Oasi di Scacco & Hope, in the province of Biella, is a non-profit association aimed at recovering horses that have been abandoned, violated or destined for slaughter. The association recovers horses in critical situations and brings them back to a natural state, free to live in herds and with the right attitude to work with man. Within the organization, we look for a green and sustainable way of working with nature through our organic vegetable garden, the search for medicinal herbs, the work with farm animals and meditation practices. Their final goal is to create a community based on mutual and fundamental respect and respect for everything around us. We have a riding school that essentially fills our working days but also spaces where children and young people can discover the aspects of rural life in contact with nature and respecting of natural and non-human times. The association also organizes cultural events, music and craft workshops, but also fundraising events to finance specific projects and the expansion and renovation of our facilities. The objective, in addition to the recovery of the animals, is above all to try to establish a different relationship with the horse, considering each animal with its own specificity and with its own past: it must be remembered, in fact, that our horses are all recovered from situations of mistreatment, causing in them a series of traumas difficult to heal, especially regard the confidence in man, which they need to gain back. In the shelter we practice an inclusive riding style, that is non-competitive, and aimed at guiding the animals in re-descovering the relationship with people. To put this desire into practice, the riding school inside the Oasi di Scacco e Hope is characterized by a relational methodology, based on the mutual respect between the human being and the animal. Founded four years ago as a laboratory (called "I nostri amici cavalli"), it is carried out on a weekly basis and it’s reserved for children from five years of age upwards. It is more demanding than a traditional riding school because there is not only the purely sporting part, but there is also a personal work to establish a true relationship with each horse. This experimentation has become over the years a working model, and it has brought to a collaboration with the instructors of the Italian Equestrian Sports Federation, which gave life to a real riding school. Over time, the Oasi organization has become a welcoming center not only for animals but also for the local community, whose residents can use workshops of various kinds, such as music workshops, soap-making workshops, but also organize theme nights and social dinners. The community can also use the library (built with waste materials). The association also has experience of welcoming international volunteers for short periods through Workaway. Since mid 2019 Oasi Scacco has included within its ongoing activities a new project called “Creativamente” which was born with the aim of establishing a music school in the territory of the Elvo Valley, a reality that has always been sensitive to culture, art and music. Inserted in the mountains surrounding our territory, in Mongrando, this educational experiment was born to bring top-level teachers to relate in an innovative way to the teaching of music, instruments and the voice. Always within the same project, it was decided to give space to another discipline: that of the circus arts. The circus school was born from the will and conviction that the ancient circus traditions can be an optimal basis for the psychomotor growth of children and teenagers and that it can also serve to open the mind to new types of art. The idea is that the school can also become a place of aggregation. In addition, by 2020 our team is planning to start theater courses for children and adults in order to expand the already wide range of courses.