The story about Minicamelot’s Emotional Support Horses
This is a 30 year in the making story, but I’ll try to make it short but remember I am a woman, so maybe not so short!
It started in Greenfield IN many years ago while breeding and showing our American Miniature Horses in local, regional and a few national shows. A friend of ours had a mom in a local nursing home and it was Christmas time. We were asked to bring a miniature horse and do some caroling. I can’t carry a tune in a coal bucket, but I had very nice well-behaved mini horses. That led to being asked to many more nursing home visits. At that time, we altered our breeding program, moving away from conformation for competition to breeding for temperament. As our reputation grew within the community, we were asked to visit local schools in the PAWS (Partners For Animal Welfare Society) canned horse program for 5 years. We still have the star of PAWS; Monique is 27 years old.
How training started:
I took the Delta Society course for Therapy animals in Cincinnati Ohio with our first therapy horse, BB. From that point on I developed our program, and trained my own miniature horses for visitations. NOT all miniature horses are suited to do therapy. Temperament in all situations is #1. Conformation does not matter.
I had many kids wanting to learn, show, play with the horses so I started doing free kid's clinics that led to many volunteers for nursing home visits, parades, etc.
SAFETY 1st in training:
Every horse has a handler. Switching handlers during training process is a good thing. Volunteers should be able to take any horse for a visit.
Basic training involves leading, backing, standing, and ROUGH touching all over because you have elderly, kids, and special needs that don’t always have control while petting.
Horses need slip on shoes because most floors are linoleum or laminate. They are not cheap, but you can use vet wrap on hooves or a non-slip sock held on with vet wrap.
PLEASE practice putting on and off at home. It takes time and practice for you and the horse.
To have an enjoyable inside visit you need a harness {we use Raspberry Field} that holds a
diaper {Ta Da horse diapers} and an extra diaper per horse.
Horse needs to work around and step up between wheelchairs. Walker, if moved, must be put back in original place.
We had a nursing home willing to let us bring horses in-training in and use elevator, and a room with equipment. Just ask, they will love to help you!
Practice at the side of a bed so horse learns to walk up to and NOT on the bed. Some will try to get on bed. Walk up as close to bed as possible to prevent this. Move bedside table out of the way and put back.
Hospital visits are very involved, contact them for specific information.
NO feeding from the hand EVER, you are teaching them to be pushy and nippy if you do. Please put treats in bowl for feeding. We do not carry treats of any kind at visits.
Your handler must be taught how to approach and halter/lead. Lead, back up, move in and out, around a wheelchair, walker and a bed.
If you plan a parade, I strongly suggest you do all the training at home as far as leading, stopping, backing, etc. PLEASE get a cd player (you need a loud one) and buy a “FUN with Sounds” cd. Place it, play it, move it around your training area. Get them use to horns honking, people cheering and clapping, and dogs barking. At the parade, ALWAYS have a spotter (carry one extra lead) for 2/3 horses to alert team about upcoming dogs or a loose dog. It happens and can be dangerous to handler/horse.
We have owned Jackman our miniature donkey for 12 years. He has been in the live nativities at church and here on the farm for our Christmas On The Farm event. He is always
an attention getter and very sweet. I do not recommend the mini donkey for a sensory friendly day/event because the bray can be very, very loud and overwhelming especially inside a barn/building. Not every miniature donkey is suitable as a therapy animals but those that are can be trained the same as the miniature horse in my humble opinion.
Dove
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