Happy Horse news

This is from the Salt Lake City Tribune:


Seniors light up during a visit from Hoofbeats to Healing star Buddy

By Tabatha Deans
Close-Up Staff
Salt Lake Tribune

Paul Bruner, 95, has a long and loving history with horses. It started when he was 16 years old and rode a horse to deliver the local newspaper in Wichita Falls, Texas. He never got around to giving the horse a name, but his fondness for his equine friend has stayed with him. The last time Bruner rode a horse, though, Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House, according to Christina Curtis, administrator of Willow Wood Care Center in Holladay, where Bruner now lives.
   Bruner still wears a white cowboy hat and says he looks like John Wayne, only taller.
   When a pony trotted into Willow Wood on a recent afternoon, Bruner's face lit up. The miniature horse named Buddy seemed to take him back to another time. Bruner wasted no time petting the animal and taking him by the lead rope.
   Buddy, 7, also is house-broken and wears booties when he comes inside. He is part of an outreach program called Hoofbeats to Healing based in Palmyra in Utah County.
   The little horse is trained to interact with people and spends his days visiting residents of care centers and people with disabilities. Tamera Tanner, founder of Hoofbeats to Healing, said she has found healing happens wherever her horses visit.
     While Bruner was short on words, the connection between Buddy and Bruner was immediate. Within minutes, Bruner had Buddy's lead rope and was giving him a tour of the center from his wheelchair.
   Buddy followed like a dutiful dog and even nudged Bruner's wheelchair to keep him moving along.
   The two toured the halls, visited with other residents and sought out the resident cat, Precious.
      Hoofbeats to Healing is a nonprofit therapeutic horseback-riding organization that promotes physical and emotional healing for individuals with disabilities.
   The group was organized more than eight years ago and now consists of 28 horses and clients who visit from all around the world for therapy sessions with the horses.
   
    For more information about Hoofbeats to Healing, visit www.hoofbeatstohealing.com.


I haven't spent a lot of time around minis, although several of my friends have them. I've always been of the mind that if you can't ride a horse, what's the point in having it (with the exception, of course, of my old mares, who used to be ridden before they started having babies. Now they're pretty much done with both, so they just get to be in the pasture)

But the efforts related here about hoofbeats to healing are wonderful. I had heard of dogs going into nursing homes to brighten the lives of those living there before, but never horses. As much as I love dogs -- and I imagine most seniors are pleaased to see them -- I expect seeing a tiny horse clomping down the hallways of the home is really special for most residents.

It is truly amazing the different ways that horses can still be a benefit to people. Kudos to hoofbeats to healing for their efforts.