What therapist is 2 years old and has 4 legs? Eli the horse, of course

A Happy Valley-Goose Bay coupleis providing four-legged therapythrough their Horses for Hope Centre Labrador, a not-for-profit program, as a way to give back to the community.

At Jim and Tina Barrett's stable, horses like two-year-old Eli are trained to provide therapeutic services, something that Jim Barrett says is important given the region's gaps in mental health services.

"As you know, horses are very therapeutic," Barrett said and he displayed the results of Eli's training so far. Despite his young age, the horse is already in tune with people's emotions something the animals are especially well suited for, he said.

"She can pick out one person who needs help, and she'll walk right up to that one person," Barrett said of an older, brown and whitehorse, one he said can see a crowd of people and walk right up to the one she senses needs her most.

Without fail, he said, that person will end up back at their busy stables, one of the many coming each day to use their services.

"The horses are so in tune with people's emotions, they can pick out that person," Barrett said.

Giving back

The stable also works with children with physical disabilities, Barrett said.

Many of those children are not only unable to ride a horse, but have never been right up next to one, he said. It's often an emotional experience for them.

"I've had kids here crying," he said.

The stable currently has a Mennonite-made buggy from the 1800s that can be used for people who don't want to get on the horses but do want the experience of being near them.

"You can see the workmanship back then, but it's beautifully restored," Barrett said of the buggy, called a doctor's buggy because at the time of its construction, doctors used them to make house calls.

The Barretts hope to design a wheelchair-accessible buggy, one that will allow children who use wheelchairs to roll directly on.

The motivation for all this work, and the sharing of their hobby and their horses, is simple, Barrett said it's a way to share that enjoyment with other people in the Happy Valley-Goose Bay area.

"We're just giving back to our community," he said.

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