Category Archives: Equine Assisted Therapy

Gleneayre Equestrian Program Reflects on 2020

Lumberton, New Jersey – Nov. 16, 2020 – Since the late 1990s, the Gleneayre Equestrian Program’s (GEP) mission has centered around “bringing horses and people together for the betterment of each other’s lives.” As with many other non-profits, 2020 has been a difficult year to not only continue their mission but also to connect with their current donors and participants. Based out of Lumberton, New Jersey, founders Bob and Ellen Healey have dedicated their lives to growing the program into the success that it has become today. With the GEP now in its 31st year, the Healeys were determined to continue the program’s growth despite of the many challenges that the community has faced.

The GEP is centered on three main programs – the Working Student program, the Equine Facilitated Learning program, and the Mental Health program. The GEP serves a wide range of individuals, including veterans, juvenile first-offenders, and those who are in need of additional support. All of the horses within the GEP are donated, including many former show horses, that have years of purpose left to give.

Due to social distancing regulations and the on-going impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, GEP made the decision to cancel the Gleneayre Horse Show and Hunter Derby in the best interest of their staff and exhibitors. The annual event is the program’s largest fundraiser and an excellent opportunity for GEP to interact with friends and the community.

“Although we were saddened to have to cancel our 2020 Horse Show and Hunter Derby, ultimately we know that it was the right thing to do for the greater good,” remarked Ellen Healey. “We are looking forward to having our event again with renewed energy in 2021!”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Equine Facilitated Learning Program has been put on hold. Fortunately, the Working Student Program is running and currently has openings for qualified children ages 10 to 18. This special program pairs children with their own horses, allowing students to gain knowledge in horsemanship, responsibility, self-confidence, and more.

“The Gleneayre Equestrian Program has a positive impact on its students by providing a place of structure, consistency, and normality during these uncertain times,” said Alison Johnson, Managing Director and Trainer. Jeannie Mattioni, Program Assistant and Trainer, echoed her thoughts by stating, “The Gleneayre Equestrian Program has given our kids a safe sanctuary where they can relieve stress and be outdoors. I think, especially now, we can all understand and appreciate the power that a little bit of normality can have in bringing a smile to our face.”

GEP takes great pride in the fact that all horses entering their programs have a forever home and are able to live out the remainder of their lives with comfort and love. Despite cancellations and program suspensions that were caused by 2020 events, the Gleneayre horses still need care. The programs encourage friends and supporters to consider sponsoring one of their special horses in order to support the unique connection between horses and humans. A charitable contribution $750 will sponsor a horse for 6 months; $1,500 will sponsor a horse for 1 year.

“All horses that enter our programs have a forever home at Gleneayre,” said Executive Director Bill Rube. “Since the cancellation of the 2020 Hunter Derby, we rolled out a Sponsor a Horse Program to help supplement the cost of care for our program horses. If you feel a special connection with one of our horses, consider sponsoring them to show your support! Your generous donation will make a difference in our horses’ lives.”

For more information regarding this opportunity, please click here.

To learn more about GEP’s important mission and current happenings, click here.

Three Horseshoes Ranch to Offer Equine-Assisted Therapy Program in South Florida

When my sister was only seven years old, doctors gave her a life-changing diagnosis: her pancreas stopped working. Years later, additional problems with her health emerged — some worse than others. When my sister was in her early twenties, doctors diagnosed her with epilepsy. Seemingly overnight, an invisible hand turned her world upside down. My sister watched in dismay as her independence evaporated. She could no longer drive. Completing her coursework became impossible, so she had to withdraw from school for a while. Epilepsy weakened her body so badly that — at first — she couldn’t even manage the short walk to the bathroom unassisted; she’d collapse before making it halfway. The limitations that my sister’s body placed on her drove her into a depression. She mourned the loss of her former life. Nothing anyone said seemed to lessen her pain.

Then one day, my parents and I gifted her a Siberian Husky puppy — Leia. (Fun fact: we actually found Leia on Craigslist the morning of my sister’s birthday; the listing had been posted merely hours earlier.) When we brought Leia home, she was as small as a chihuahua, yet she came into my sister’s life with the force of a category five hurricane. The whole family noticed an instant change in my sister. She spent less time isolating herself and more time with the family. She talked more. She smiled more. After a while, she confided in us that Leia took up so much of her time that she didn’t have as many opportunities to entertain the somber thoughts that used to fill her mind. Leia slowly pieced my sister’s heart back together. In that special way that only animals are capable of, Leia offered my sister an escape from her troubles — the perfect distraction.

Observing the effect that Leia’s mere presence had on my sister’s wellbeing inspired the idea for Three Horseshoes Ranch. I began to think that it would be wonderful if children dealing with chronic illnesses had someone like Leia in their life — someone that could make them forget about their troubles, even if only for a little while. Three Horseshoes Ranch will offer such an escape. It will give ill children the opportunity to interact with ponies and ride horses. Children of all ages and riding ability will be welcome to visit the ranch as often as they’d like, and the ranch will have on-site instructors to provide lessons.

Because the expenses of having a child with health issues are often exorbitant and money is thus often tight, all of this will be offered completely free of charge. The ranch will fund the program through other services offered to the public — such as boarding. To make Three Horseshoes Ranch a reality, we need your help. We need funds to acquire land (we are currently looking in south Florida), find the perfect horses and ponies for the program, and build the necessary facilities (such as riding arenas, restrooms, shelters for the horses and ponies, etc.). The costs of getting a project like this off the ground are so high that — without donations — it could take years before Three Horseshoes Ranch opens. You can change that. Every donation gets us closer to our goal. And your donation will make a difference in the life of not just one child but in the lives of scores of children. Please consider making a donation today and sharing this fundraiser with others; the more people that you share this fundraiser with, the more likely we are to reach our goal. Thank you so much for your time and support!

Miniature Therapy Horses Inspirational Card Deck

Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses bring their big love, hope, and healing to more than 25,000 adults and children each year inside hospitals, hospice programs, and with families, veterans, and first responders who have experienced traumatic events. Even during the current health challenges, the therapy horses have been using Zoom and FaceTime to encourage patients and have also been visiting patients outside windows using iPads to communicate back and forth.

Now a unique and magical boxed deck of Miniature Therapy Horses Inspirational Cards with guidebook have been created and are currently on Kickstarter. They feature and will help support the tiny horses of Gentle Carousel.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gentlecarousel/gentle-carousel-miniature-therapy-horses-inspirational-deck

Of all the thousands of Kickstarter campaigns currently active, the Miniature Therapy Horse Inspirational Card Deck was given one of three Projects We Love badges this week from the Kickstarter staff.  We already knew this was a beautiful, one-of-a-kind deck, but a show of respect and enthusiasm from Kickstarter means so much. Projects We Love badges are a BIG deal and we are thrilled.

This has been a challenging year for charities. Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses had to cancel their two main fundraisers in 2020 due to health concerns. Pledging on Kickstarter helps the charity and also brings a BOX OF HAPPY to your home or to a loved one. They are perfect for children of all ages.

Funding past the Kickstarter goal will be used to print even more decks to help Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses in 2021.

Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses
www.Horse-Therapy.org
www.facebook.com/TherapyHorses
www.instagram.com/gentlecarousel

Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses – Still Making Visits

Photo — Scout at Brookdale Chambel Pinecastle, an assisted living facility in Ocala, Florida.

Therapy horse Scout usually visits hospital patients and residents of assisted living programs from room to room. When those facilities close to visitors due to the coronavirus pandemic, what is a 100-pound horse to do?

He brings his 2000-pound Percheron friend Tiny Prince Charming to visit waiting residents through the windows while human volunteers hold up signs with messages of love. Scout could not go inside and residents could not come outside, but they still touched each other’s hearts. Scout and Tiny Prince Charming put their noses on the windows when patients put their hands on the glass.

Scout is a member of Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses. For the last 22 years their teams of tiny horses have been bringing love to over 25,000 adults and children each year inside hospitals, hospice programs, assisted living programs, and with families, veterans, and first responders who have experienced traumatic events.

The therapy horses are also still working in children’s hospitals by using prerecorded programs combined with live video from their farm.

Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses
www.Horse-Therapy.org
www.facebook.com/TherapyHorses
www.instagram.com/gentlecarousel

Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses – Virtual Visits

“There is a pony on the phone for you.”

Many young hospital patients develop a special friendship with a favorite therapy horse over the months of their medical treatment. When the therapy horses can’t physically be with a patient (like after a bone marrow transplant or if they go home between treatments), the horses have made FaceTime calls to check on their young friends.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses is using a home studio to stay in contact with their friends in hospital care across the country.  “There is a pony on the phone for you.”

The horses make individual calls and plans are also underway to have a combination of pre-recorded story times and live feed from the therapy horses to play in rooms for entire children’s hospitals. This would use hospital studios that the horses have already been visiting in person for many years.

Gentle Carousel is also recording reading programs because the horses cannot do their regular library and school visits.

Virtual Fundraiser

Gentle Carousel’s two main fundraisers of 2020 to support the charity have been postponed/cancelled due to the current health situation, including the Walk Like a Pharoah Walkathon and Festival.

Instead of a large, public walkathon, the charity will have a “mini walkathon” fundraiser that can be watched safely from home. Three special horses will make the walk using the track where Triple Crown winner American Pharoah trained at the McKathan Brothers Training Center in Citra, Florida.

Tiny therapy horse Scout, a 2000-pound Percheron named Prince Charming, and The Sundance Kid, a recently adopted mustang who had been living in the wild on public range lands in Nevada, will be filmed while they walk together. The Sundance Kid had been passed over three times for adoption at three separate adoption events, making him a “three strikes” “unadoptable” mustang until he found his forever home.

The volunteers handling the horses will wear masks and keep “one Percheron distance” apart from each other during the walk.

Friends can sponsor Scout, Prince Charming, and The Sundance Kid to support Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses at: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/GentleCarousel.

The “mini walkathon” can be watched on April 27th starting at 7pm on Gentle Carousel’s Facebook page.

Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses is one of the largest equine therapy programs in the world. Teams of tiny horses bring love to over 25,000 adults and children each year inside hospitals, hospice programs, assisted living programs, and with families, veterans, and first responders who have experienced traumatic events.  A multiple award winning 501(c)(3), the charity is celebrating over 20 years of service.

Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses
www.Horse-Therapy.org
www.facebook.com/TherapyHorses
www.instagram.com/gentlecarousel

Eagala Celebrated 20th Anniversary with Record-Breaking Attendance at 2020 Conference

Lexington, Ky. – March 16, 2020 – Eagala recently celebrated their 20th Anniversary with record-breaking attendance during their Vision 360 conference on February 26-29. Over 630 people, Eagala members and those passionate about equines from across the U.S., and twenty countries gathered in Lexington to network, learn, and celebrate the past 20 years, while creating clarity for the next 20 years in the rapidly growing Eagala Model approach. The Eagala Model combines licensed mental health professionals, qualified equine specialists, and horses to effectively work with clients addressing mental health issues.

As part of the conference, Eagala was proud to host the Congressional Horse Caucus on Saturday, Feb. 29th.  Eagala CEO, Lynn Thomas, with the support of the American Horse Council, and members of the Congressional Horse Caucus attended a live, hands-on demonstration with horses and a panel discussion at the Lexington Convention Center.

Thousands of pounds of dirt were brought in to transform the basement of the Lexington Convention Center into a working indoor arena. Following the demonstration, the panel met about the impact of incorporating horses in mental health services for Veterans with PTSD and re-entry transitions, suicide prevention, substance abuse recovery, rural mental health issues, and other mental health needs in which horses can have a positive impact on treatment outcomes.

In attendance was Horse Caucus Co-chairman Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY 6), a member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, who prior to the Caucus participated in an Eagala session with Kentucky-based veterans. Representative Barr has been a strong advocate for this method to improve the lives of veterans and horses, including retired racehorses.  He has led legislation funding equine-assisted services for mental health issues through the Veterans Administration Adaptive Sports Grant, and co-sponsored the IMPROVE Well Being for Veterans Act (H.R. 3495) – a veteran suicide prevention bill to provide grants to community organizations that interact with veterans who may not seek care at the VA, and includes access to equine-assisted services.

Invited to participate in the panel were members of the Congressional Horse Caucus, leaders in the horse and equine-assisted services industries, and veterans and others who have benefited from these services. The Caucus was moderated by Eagala Legislative Director, Ellen Stroud. To learn more about Eagala, please visit their website here.

Magic the Sugar Plum Fairy

Therapy horse Magic celebrated the holidays with her ballet dancer friends on stage for The Magic of the Nutcracker! at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Gainesville, Florida.

The special performance by the Dance Alive National Ballet was for children from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. They experienced the all-time family favorite by sitting right on the stage, feeling vibrations through the floor and speakers, and touching the costumes and dancers to see the art through their fingertips.

Magic’s costumes, including the sugar plum fairy and Santa’s elf, were made by a Dance Alive National Ballet costume designer.  Magic was an equine professional both on and off the stage.

Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses
www.gentlecarouseltherapyhorses.com

Book Release of Mercury & Sirius

Just because we are different doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. We just need to care about each other. That is the magical message of real-life best friends Mercury and Sirius, a miniature therapy horse and his canine companion.

Therapy horse Mercury works with Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses, one of the largest equine therapy programs in the world. The therapy horses were called in to comfort survivors and first responders of the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC, and the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL. They helped the tornado survivors of Moore, OK, victims of the fires in Gatlinburg, TN, families in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, and they visit thousands of patients in children’s and veterans’ hospitals across the country each year.  A multiple award winning, 501(c)(3), the charity is celebrating over 20 years of service and brings love to more than 25,000 adults and children a year.

The therapy horses also “bring books to life” for thousands of children each year inside schools, libraries, mentoring programs, at literacy events, and at education resource centers in high crime neighborhoods. Gentle Carousel’s literacy program has a special focus on at-risk readers.

The heartwarming friendship between Mercury and Sirius has been featured in national magazines and on television programs. Now they have a beautiful children’s book scheduled for release on November 15, 2019.  Mercury & Sirius is currently available for pre-order on Amazon (Prime), Barnes and Noble, and other top booksellers.

Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses
www.gentlecarouseltherapyhorses.com
352-226-9009

Therapy Horses Magic and Moonshadow Special Guests at Hats Off Day

Therapy horses Magic and Moonshadow will be special guests on Saturday, July 27 at Hats Off Day at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. It is the only day of the year that admission to the Horse Park is free. Hats Off Day is sponsored by our wonderful friends at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital and is a celebration of the horse and its impact on the state of Kentucky.

Moonshadow will be driving into the Kentucky Horse Park Rolex Outdoor Stadium in style… in a Mercedes convertible!

There will be fun family activities and free horse farm hats, generously provided by area horse farms and businesses, that are given to the first attendees to arrive. Hats Off Day is from 4 to 10 p.m. at the Kentucky Horse Park, but the Horse Park is free all day. At 7:30 p.m., The Rood & Riddle Kentucky Grand Prix begins. It is a premier show jumping competition held annually at the Kentucky Horse Park for the past 25 years, with a $50,000 grand prize.

Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses
www.gentlecarouseltherapyhorses.com
352-226-9009

Therapy Horse Mercury to Be in Live Oak International Parade of Nations and Breeds

Therapy horse Mercury will be in the Live Oak International Parade of Nations and Breeds on Thursday, March 7, 2019 at the Ocala Downtown Square. He will be one of the horses available for a photo opportunity.

Look for Mercury at the beginning of the parade right behind title sponsor and Grand Marshal, Chester Weber, with the Grandview Clydesdales.  Mercury is in Position #1 and will be just a little smaller than his Clydesdale friends.

There will be lots of music, food, and family fun and over 25 different horse breeds.

Debbie Garcia-Bengochea
Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses
www.gentlecarouseltherapyhorses.com
www.facebook.com/TherapyHorses
www.instagram.com/gentlecarousel
352-226-9009