-
Bailey
Silver Bay Mare
34” Miniature Horse
11 years old -
Lily
Black Appaloosa Mare
39” Shetland Pony
9 years old -
Oliver
Tricolour Pinto Gelding
33” Miniature Horse
9 years old -
Lucy
Buckskin Appaloosa Mare
34” Miniature Horse
10 years old
Our Horses
We purchased the horses from a specialty breeder in 2017, carefully choosing four young horses for their confident, affectionate nature — traits we knew could be nurtured into brave, outgoing therapy horses. Now almost eight years later, they have matured into emotionally balanced, friendly horses who love meeting new people.
Our minis are handled daily and receive consistent care along with a constant supply of hugs and kisses. Using kindness and patience, they have been desensitized to wheelchairs, walkers, large groups, new environments and most loud noises.
The horses live at a large, professional farm offering a healthy environment, with proper nutrition, scheduled veterinary and farrier care, along with daily playtime with herd mates. They are never hand-fed, always arrive clean and calm, and are managed by someone who understands both equine behaviour and the unique needs of therapy programs.
More than just adorable, our minis are trustworthy, affectionate partners with big hearts and strong foundations.
With the support of our clients,
training sessions took us to very special places
A training session with Lucy at the York Regional Police
Community Safety Village in Stouffville
Training Mini Therapy Horses
When we created our visit program, we considered both the participant’s perspective and the impact on our horses. We wanted the horses to enjoy meeting new people, but we realized each phase of a visit would be stressful. To reduce safety risks and alleviate the horse’s anxiety, we trained our horses to be confident in new spaces and adaptable to various flooring, automated doors, walkers and motorized wheelchairs, as well as loading and unloading from our cargo van in new, and often noisy, situations. With consistency and patience the horses learned their role as therapy horses and continued to gain confidence with each new visit.
We also worked with our client organizations to be allowed to do on-site training visits, especially during our early days of visiting long-term care homes. We worked closely with Carefree Lodge in North York, where we completed seven training visits, each time lengthening the visit and exploring new areas of the property to build the horse’s confidence.
Oliver always received a lot of love and attention from the ladies at Carefree Lodge. At the end of the video, we exit through double glass doors, which were initially a challenge.
We took advantage of unusual situations on the farm such as large trucks, the pressure washer, construction and the laundry room with its slippery linoleum floor. Training in their home environment allowed us to focus on confidence building skills without concern for safety.
Lucy on a summer garden visit at a long term care home located beside a busy road and lively water fountain - turn your volume on to hear background noise.
Oliver practicing stairs at the Aurora Town Hall during COVID. We trained Lucy and Oliver on this staircase several times because it had wide, low steps, good footing and a quiet location.
Oliver in 2017 with a horse-crazy girl at our boarding barn. We allowed the farm kids to have supervised fun with the minis to expose the horses to awkward handling by people at their level.
We often took the horses to shopping malls and industrial parks so they could gain confidence in a new environment and practice loading on the van in a public space.
Oliver in 2022 during a training visit at Pet Valu, Aurora. The town environment can be very challenging and unpredictable, so we took advantage of training visits that exposed the horses to unusual sights, sounds and smells.
Lily and Bailey in 2022 with participants who visited us in the barn. During COVID, the horses were restricted to the farm property. We began rebuilding our business by exposing the horses to easier visits in a familiar environment.
