Champion Kimberley rodeo rider Kadin Bauer has lost his brother and some of his uncles and aunties to suicide.

"For a while there, every time the phone rang you thought it was another one, you didn't know who was next," he said.

Sadly, the West Australian rider's experience is not unique.

More than 80 Indigenous Australians have taken their lives this year, including several young people from the Kimberley.

Suicide rates among Indigenous children and young people in this remote region are some of the highest in the world.

Something that has helped Mr Bauer hang on through dark times is his love of horses.

"Riding is my way of releasing the pressure so it doesn't build up and explode," he said.

Rodeo rider Kadin Bauer believes he is helping other Aboriginal youth build inner strength through a connection with horses. ( ABC: Matt Bamford )

To help others handle life's challenges, he's become involved in an Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) program in Derby.

Juli Coffin from the Telethon Kids Institute developed the program after watching traditional therapy methods miss the mark.

Millions of dollars in government funding and more than 40 reports, including back-to-back coronial inquiries, have also failed to significantly reduce suicide rates.

"We've really got to do something different or we're not going to see a difference," Professor Coffin said.

"We can't afford to lose any more people.

"It's all too real how many funerals we go to that are suicides and we need to be peddlers of hope."

Juli Coffin, a renowned health researcher, has adapted the program for Aboriginal people. ( ABC: Matt Bamford )

How it works

Professor Coffin has developed the EAL program by adapting methods used by Australia's Equine Psychotherapy Institute and tapping into the Kimberley's rich pastoral history.

Participants go through a series of mainly one-on-one interactions with horses, under the supervision of an EAL practitioner.

As prey animals, horses are acutely attuned to the body language of humans.

"The horses act as mirrors, so whatever your energy is or your emotions are at that time, they're going to mirror that to you," practitioner Agnes Pigram said.

This feedback loop is thought to help develop life skills like self-awareness and the ability to regulate emotions.

EAL taps into the Kimberley's rich pastoral history. ( ABC: Matt Bamford )

Professor Coffin said the program taps into an "Aboriginal world-view" of relationships between people, animals and the land.

"For us in an Aboriginal cultural context, this stuff is not that different, the connectivity with nature and the land," she said.

"Practical action-based experiential learning is very much within our cultural domain."

Mr Bauer agreed.

"[Participants] think, 'I don't want to talk to [therapists], they don't know me'," he said.

"Horses feel your hurt and they're not going to judge you for it."

Does it work?

After starting with just four students, 370 young Aboriginal people took part in a trial program at Geraldton in 2015.

One client stood out for Professor Coffin.

He was diagnosed with multiple behavioural issues, including foetal alcohol spectrum disorder and suffered involuntary tics.

"The neural pathways weren't there for him to sit and regulate," she said.

"But the first moment he would touch the horses the ticcing would just stop."

After the program, the boy's mother told Professor Coffin her son's behaviour at home and in the classroom had improved dramatically.

Professor Coffin said training local people is essential for the long-term success of the EAL program. ( ABC: Matt Bamford )

Plans to expand

With five years of state and Federal Government funding, including support from the Kimberley Aboriginal Suicide Prevention Trial, Professor Coffin has been able to train eight local Aboriginal people to deliver the program.

She believes building the model from the grassroots is essential for long-term success.

"We really want to make sure that local people are part of the co-design and the delivery because, without that, these things are not sustainable," she said.

"It's no good constantly bringing in people from other areas, they are not invested in the same way."

There are plans to introduce the program in other parts of northern WA, once it is established in Broome and Derby.

It is hoped EAL can be expanded across the Kimberley and the Pilbara in the coming years. ( ABC: Matt Bamford )

Watch this story on ABC TV's Landline this Sunday at 12:30pm or on iView.