Therapy ponies bring joy to hospice patients

TINY Shetland ponies Peanut and Wizzle spread a huge amount of joy when they trotted into St Luke’s specialist unit at Turnchapel

- JACKIE BUTLER

Patients and their families were surprised but delighted when the knee-high young therapy ponies turned up on the ward, brought in by Charlotte Pine of Dartmoor Carriages at Shaugh Prior in a special visit organised with Sister Karen Thorrington.

“We have a lot of very, very poorly patients but the looks on their faces and the enjoyment they got from the visit was amazing,” says Karen. “I think some of them thought they were hallucinating!

“Peanut and Wizzle went right up to the patients and nuzzled them, and they were able to give them a good smooth. They had their heads right in the bed with one patient and he was feeding them carrots.”

Rachel Marriott, a care assistant on the specialist unit who has a lot of experience with horses, was thrilled to be there to help the visit go smoothly and witness the uplifting effect on patients and family members, as well as staff.