TV star Martin Clunes turned out to support youngsters who have been changing their lives thanks to working with horses.

A local charity has been able to help 20 youngsters gain confidence and manage their anxieties and their tempers using natural horsemanship.

Harriet Laurie started TheHorseCourse in 2010 and so far has mainly been helping young offenders on Portland and training other people to do the same in other prisons across the country.

But with funding from Children in Need she and her team have been able to offer the unique course to youngsters referred by Children's Services.

Last week patrons Mr Clunes and former South Dorset MP Lord Jim Knight came to Rodden Farm, near Weymouth, to present the certificates to all 20 children who passed their Parelli natural horsemanship Level 1 and two who passed their Level 2.

Martin Clunes said: “It’s been amazing. I was chatting to the youngsters and they all got so much out of it.

“It is a great thing and it really works.”

Fellow patron Lord Jim Knight said the new direction is a way of diversifying from the prison service courses.

He said: “If you can do some earlier intervention it makes more sense.”

Ms Laurie said: “This has been a fantastic five-week showcase for our work, which is better known with young offenders.

“We thoroughly enjoyed bringing the course to younger people and seeing the same, if not more, benefit for them.

“We have had a lot of positive feedback from social services and now hopefully it will expand and become more available through mainstream provision, as a different way of approaching troubled and troublesome people if they are struggling to make progress with verbal interventions.”

Gaby Ross, manager of the early intervention service at Weymouth and Portland said: “I was very excited that some of our young people had the opportunity to take part in TheHorseCourse.

“The youngsters needed help with confidence, social skills, managing themselves and their emotions.

“I have had feedback from the staff in the team who told me there had been huge changes.”

Kirsty Dring, wellbeing team leader for All Saints School, said: “I get to spend my working life in a therapeutic setting with kids, one-to-one in a room and it can be really hard to do things in that way that they can take out into the wider world and use.

“But the thing about TheHorseCourse is you see them doing it there and then in the moment and in a really real way.”

All Saints head of year and trustee of TheHorseCourse, Kitty Forrester, said the course was a way for the children to practise the practical application of all the theoretical talking done in school.

She said: “We talk about managing their emotions and this allows them to put it into practice.”