It’s a complete blessing for someone to see their work as one of their hobbies.

And this is what Robert Davis from Laurelvale social farm has “most days”.

Laurelvale Equestrian centre in Templepatrick offers a riding School, livery Provision, a Pony Club Centre, RDA Centre and training and Assessment centre for BHS.

But, Robert’s heart lies with introducing special needs children and adults to the magic of animals.

placeholder image — Getting cattle ready for a show

"I have people who come along to our farm who had been at Muckamore Abbey, but they still come along.” he said.

"I also did home visits with one girl after she left Muckamore because she needed the calming effect of animals when she had a medical appointment.

"You find that early on that people can change around animals, but it is important to have fun – and get a bit of work done too”.

In a bid to liven up farm visits Robert held “a Winter Olympics on the farm, curling with a big bale of sileage being pushed down the yard, bob sleighing where we had them on a chair and pushed then down the alley between the horses.

"We did all sorts of daft things, but still safe,” said Robert.

"We took a video of what they were up to and send it to their families so they see what had been going on. It is all good fun and gives them something to talk about,” he added.

Robert also tries to get participants involved in caring for the animals.

He said they have “70 Moiled cattle, 30 sheep, 45 horses, 11 cats, 3 dogs, 9 pygmy goats, 16 peacocks, chickens 11 ducks and one dove”.

“So there is a good variety to work with,” he said.

“We have a herd of Irish Moiled cattle and sometimes participants would help me get them ready for shows, washed and sorted out," he said.

“We have lambs which are well looked after by our participants. You find they calm down when they are with animals. People don’t know what they can do until they try.

"We also have horses and lots of pygmy goats who are great fun,” he added.

“Riding for the disabled groups meet here, then through the British Horse asociety kids come out who cannot cope with mainstream schools.

“We are a pony club centre which is for kids who don’t have their own pony so they can come and be involved and use our ponies.

“Halloween is coming up so we will have a lot of fun with that with the participants”.

Adding that Laurelvale “is a very happy place, at times”, Robert said he started the equestrian centre 20 years ago “and the animal numbers grew from there”.

“You get a lot of appreciation from families which is great to see, but I basically I won’t be able to ever retire”.

At the NI Farming Awards last week Robert won the Unsung Hero Award - sponsored by AFBI NI.