Essie Mooney is founder and C.E.O. of Equisteps, Ireland’s premier equine-assisted learning centre. Having grown up with horses, she became involved with equine therapy from a young age, helping her grandparents lead ponies in Scotland’s special schools.

After achieving a B. Ed. (Hons) from Glasgow University, Essie moved to Ireland and worked for eight years in Festina Lente in Bray, where she was head of the Equine Assisted Learning department, and, during this time, she qualified as a Horse Sport Ireland Coach, B.H.S. Riding Instructor, Therapeutic Riding Coach and Equine Assisted Learning Facilitator, and her team gained widespread renown for pioneering work with primary and secondary school children as well as with families.

In or around 2012, Essie was approached by (the late) Joan Keogh of Spruce Lodge with a vision of setting up Ireland’s first equestrian vaulting group; together they established E.V.I. (Equestrian Vaulting Ireland), Essie qualified as a B.E.V. coach and led Ireland’s first internationally competing vaulting team – she still teaches aspiring vaulters two nights per week.

In 2015 she founded the equine-assisted-learning and riding centre, Equisteps, and, with her team (and horses!) and her passion for inclusion and education, Essie Mooney has established a home-from-home for hundreds of delighted children, students and parents alike (see testimonies below).