by Mary Jean Wall

The little guy must have felt like a foundling.

He was alone. He was confused. He’d been taken from his birth mother in late February after she kicked at him every time he tried to nurse.

Then, a most wonderful love story began unfolding. A Thoroughbred mare, Maizelle, who had lost her foal at birth two days previously was shown to the little guy’s stall at Machmer Hall Farm near Paris.

To the amazement of many, the two bonded instantly.

“She walked in and she was like, ‘Oh, you found him. Great,’” said Carrie Brogden, recounting how the substitute mother appeared to think the new foal was her own — a baby she never really saw because it died during its birth.

Her foal had died after Maizelle’s blood pressure dropped during foaling. Deprived of oxygen, the foal was undergoing seizures and not breathing when it emerged.

She’d been looking for her foal since then, nickering and wondering where it went. When she was shown the new baby she fell instantly in love.

Read more: A Rejected Foal and a Brokenhearted Mare Saved Each Other

by Kendra Gale

The benefits of interaction with horses are only just beginning to be properly explored, and with their unique small size and very curious personality, Miniature Horses are very well suited to be therapy animals.

Equine Assisted Learning and Equine Assisted Therapy

Using horses as a part of psychotherapy, or to teach life skills, is a rapidly growing modality. Julia Morgan, of Horse Powered Connections, is a certified FEEL practitioner. FEEL stands for Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning, and horses are a very active participant in the process. Using a horse-led series of exercises, equine experiential learning works with the horse’s natural sensitivity to physical movement and emotional states to help people gain self-knowledge and acquire skills leading to personal growth through positive life changes.

Julia’s focus is on children. Her journey began with her own son, who was non-verbal and diagnosed as severely autistic. He is now an outgoing, talkative, and confident little boy, a transformation that Julia credits to the horses and learning to connect with his environment more like a horse would. Julia enjoys working with children and finds a special joy in helping children face the challenges arising from ADD (attention deficit disorders), anxiety, and ASD (autism spectrum disorder). She has seen remarkable changes from children’s interactions with the horses, from a teenage girl with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) who proclaimed that her brain had never been so quiet, to a young autistic boy who was once again excited to go to school and make new friends because he’d been able to make friends with the horse.

Read more: Miniature Horse Therapy: Great Big Good Things in Small Packages