Saturday, May 25, 2019 — The Good Times
The Hospital Horse, Bringing Affection and Serenity
This horse seems to understand people in need. He’s Peyo, a stallion that visits people in hospitals and retirement homes in France. After a thorough cleaning, he’s allowed to enter these establishments and walk down the corridors until he stops at the door of someone’s room. That means he wants to visit them. Those he comes into contact with say he brings joy, and the staff acknowledge he has an “extraordinary positive effect” on the patients.
Some people call it animal mediation, others simply admit that it’s inexplicable, and beautiful.
Here’s Peyo in action:
For more, check out Les Sabots Du Coeur [“The hooves of the heart”].
This video on The Good Times demonstrates that horses actually bring therapeutic benefits that are tangible, and conclusively demonstrates that equines can transmit a healing and uplifting energy (that may indeed be correlated with relief of post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic stress, and may boost the immune system to fight disease).
This emotionally powerful video is backed up with evidence-based clinical studies and equine therapy programs.
There is evidence that equine/equestrian therapy, in an interdisciplinary, theory-driven structure, does in fact increase veterans’ occupational performance in the community. See “Equine-Assisted Learning Assists Veterans With Civilian Employment” by C. Meola and L. R. Goodwin, Jr., ACA Knowledge Center, Vistas Online, Article 5, 2016, at counseling.org: “Some programs for veterans focus on building vocational skills in the field of animal care or equine skills … The experiential work with the horse in a therapy setting raises individuals’ awareness, or consciousness … Many civilian employment options available to veterans do not provide the same purpose and meaning.”