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In 2008, Victoria Nodiff-Netanel founded Mini Therapy Horses with her miniature horse, Pearl
The company, made up of nine horses, offers site visits to hospitals, schools, fire departments and wherever else extra care is needed
Now, Nodiff-Netanel tells PEOPLE how the viral idea came to be
Victoria Nodiff-Netanel has always been a proud “horse woman.”
The former dressage rider knew she wanted to combine her love for horses with helping the community, which led her to become the president and executive director of Mini Therapy Horses. In 2008, Nodiff-Netanel founded the company with her first miniature horse, Pearl.
Nodiff-Netanel talks exclusively with PEOPLE about her charity and her horses, saying, “my whole life changed with this one little horse.”
Victoria Nodiff-Netanel
Victoria Nodiff-Netanel as a dressage rider
“I started training Pearl to do different things, and that’s when I got my light-bulb moment of how wonderful it would be to share my passion and connection with horses to help people,” she says. “I didn’t know anything about animal services, animal therapy, or animal-assisted therapy at the time. I started taking one step at a time with my one horse.”
Through training and different certifications, Pearl became the organization’s first therapy horse. Since Nodiff-Netanel’s father was a veteran, she decided the first place she wanted to visit was the local veterans hospital in California.
“Now, at the VA, we’ve been in the intensive care unit. We run a program in the lockdown psychiatric ward with the horses, which is rewarding for these veterans. A lot of them are homeless, they’re addicts. They’re going through a lot,” she shares.
“The horses have an extremely calming effect. With the horse, we work together on social, emotional and spiritual behaviors.”
Mini Therapy Horses
Horses playing a keyboard.
“When someone’s hugging a horse, everybody becomes very quiet. It allows people to make that emotional and spiritual connection. It really helps,” she adds. “Sometimes kids or adults will talk to the horses or cry with the horses, hug the horses, things that’ll happen that won’t happen in other situations.”
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Since the first site visit, the charity has expanded from just Pearl to nine highly trained miniature therapy horses.
In addition to weekly visits to the VA hospital, the organization visits children’s hospitals, police and fire departments, schools, the Ronald McDonald house, and is a part of the Mayor’s Crisis Response Team (CRT), offering equine-assisted activities (EAA) and equine-assisted therapy (EAT).
The horses were invaluable during the recent Los Angeles wildfires, offering services to those who lost their homes, the firefighters and crisis response teams, and anyone else who needed extra love and support during the difficult time.
“We did so much work during the wildfires and in the past with fires, we have now become part of the L.A. City Fire Department,” Nodiff-Netanel shares.
Mini Therapy Horses
A Horse playing a keyboard for a child in a hospital.
Her horses recently went viral after Nodiff-Netanel posted a video of one of them waking up a child from surgery by playing an electric keyboard. Nodiff-Netanel says every horse in her care can play the piano, among other things.
Before a visit, all the horses are washed, their hair is braided and they all wear shoes. Each one knows how to maneuver in tight spaces, stay calm in loud situations, smile, play instruments, and adapt to anything. “We rotate them so they never get burned out,” Nodiff-Netanel shares.
“Every visit, we come away with special moments. The horses are magical, and the connections they make are magical,” she adds. “They react to things so gently, so calmly and with such sensitivity that people feel so comfortable around them. Here’s this tiny little horse they can touch and interact with and hug and feel her heartbeat.”
Mini Therapy Horses
A horse playing keyboard in the hospital
Nodiff-Netanel notes that none of this would be possible without the passion and commitment of her volunteers, who help with training, site visits and taking care of the horses. She also credits donations that help keep the organization running.
“It’s donations from people who love the horses that keep the horses fed and the programs going,” she says. “People can see all the different ways the horses help people. All these places we go to, from the police department, the fire department, to the schools, we’re the only horses going there.”
“We’re the only horses in these hospitals. It takes a team to do this, and I couldn’t do it without my volunteers. Volunteers are everything, and people who are like-minded who carry the same passion with the horses make it all work. Without them, I’m just one person with a little horse.”
Read the original article on People
