A Little Magic: A Love of Little Horses

By: Allison Capley (’16), Student Affairs Technical Services

On Thursdsay, November 5^th, miniature therapy horses are coming to JMU! Trot your way to the Hillside Field anywhere from 12:00pm-3:00pm to meet Cheyenne, Dolly, and Wish: 3 of the miniature horses from A Little Magic—an organizational therapy team that provides Animal Assisted activities with their trained and registered miniature horses in communities across Virginia. You will be able to come spend some quality time with them and learn other information about how to manage stress. Don’t let the mid-semester blues get you down—these horses are here to spread some love and cheerful, adorable entertainment!

The Counseling Center is sponsoring this event as part of Rebecca Jones, a senior Psychology major’s outreach project. Rebecca is very passionate about equine therapy and hopes to become a professional counselor and open one of the first equine-facilitated psychotherapy centers in Virginia. Animal Assisted Activities are both fun and helpful for people of all ages! Benefits of this kind of activity span from reduced blood pressure, decreased anxiety and stress, and lifted moods due to potential release of endorphins.

Horses in particular make great therapy animals because they are intuitive, mirror human emotions, and allow for give-and-take interactions. Additionally, miniature horses provide a non-threatening experience because of their size. While normal horses average around 5-6 feet tall, miniature horses rarely reach 3 feet in height, making their lesser stature a fascination and source of comfort. Rebecca exclaims, “I am thrilled and cannot wait to brighten student’s days on Wednesday with the help of our adorable equine friends!”

All service animals must have the ability to respond to target stimulus that individuals interacting with them portray. Miniature horses provide a unique, out-of-the-ordinary therapeutic experience that allows people to come together and bond over some cuddly companionship. “The impact and benefits that Animal Assisted Activates can provide is astounding—people don’t realize how awesome it is—that miniature horses can do this. It really puts things into perspective and it’s cool to see people encouraged and supportive of the horses,” states Rebecca.

No matter what you have stressing you out, or even if you’re just an animal lover, try to take some time out of your schedule Wednesday so these mini horses can brighten your day and alleviate some stress (or at least go give one a hug). “Our hope is that students will be able to spend some time interacting with the miniature horses, have some fun, and relax while they are there,” says Magali Laitem, a Staff Psychologist-Resident at the Counseling Center. JMU has never hosted equine-assisted activities like this before so you don’t want to miss out!

For further information about Animal Assisted Activity or this event, contact The Counseling Center at 540-568-6552.