2016 Miniature Horse WORLD Issues April/May 2016 - Volume 32, Number 2 | Page 26

miniature tales
By Ronica Froese
Little Horses Big Smiles Therapy

Charlie

the Miniature Therapy Horse
“The relationships we’ve made with people are
just unbelievable ... I just didn’t know we could
make people smile the way we do.”

C

harlie is an almost 2 year-old Miniature horse. Charlie and I are a registered animal assisted therapy and
activities team with Pet Partners, the only national organization that registers Miniature
equine for animal assisted therapy and activities. His “herd” at home is made up of my 8
year old son Dylan, our Yorkie, Jackson, our
“rescue mutt” Thunder and myself. For the
past year we have been visiting various nursing homes, schools, hospitals, assisted living
facilities, a brain injury facility and the Grand
Rapids Home For Veterans in the west and
central Michigan area. I come from a military family with two brothers who are veterans and one who is still serving in the Air
National Guard. The veterans of our great
nation mean the world to us.

We love our monthly visits to this veteran’s
home. The veterans at the Grand Rapids
Home for Veterans refer to my Charlie as
“Our Charlie.” He brings joy, smiles and
comfort to everyone we visit whether it be
an actual therapy visit or a shopping outing
to the various pet friendly stores we go to
for supplies. Charlie is not only a therapy
horse but is learning lots of tricks. His most
loved trick is to smile! He smiles at everyone and the smiles we receive in return are so
big and genuine. Charlie loves to give kisses
and hugs while on visits as well. We are so
blessed and honored in what we do.

After the Grand Rapids Press wrote a great
article on us we were contacted by the news
station UpNorth Live in Traverse City and
they came on a visit with us. After our appearance on the news, Tricia Donegan, the
Hub Director from the Mid Michigan Honor Flights, saw the video and contacted me to
talk about about partnering with them. The
Veteran’s cup is one of their biggest fundraisers of the year and we were to be the guests
of honor. That meant I had only 10 days to
teach Charlie to hold the hockey puck in his
teeth and drop it center ice. He did awesome
and dropped the puck right on cue! I was

24 Miniature Horse World

A P R I L / M AY 2016