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| Lunar from 'Mane in Heaven' visits with pediatric patients at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Credit: (M Spencer Green, AP)
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"Mystery and Lunar...are equines on a medical mission to offer comfort care and distraction therapy for ailing patients."
- AP, News24
Many children in the pediatric unit
at Chicago's Rush University Medical Centre received a special surprise
visit from two adorably fuzzy and gentle miniature horses, Mystery and Lunar.
'Mane in Heaven' is an animal-assisted therapy group that cares for the horses and takes trips visiting disability centers and nursing homes. The trip to Rush in November however was their first hospital visit. It proved to be such a big success that additional hospital visits have been scheduled.
Animal-assisted therapy is a practice we love reading about. Hearing how these unique interactions with animals can bring so much happiness and comfort to hospital patients makes us wonder why more health care institutions aren't embracing it. Studies have shown that animal therapy benefits patient health as it "reduces pain and blood pressure, and decreases fear and stress [especially] in hospitalized children" (AP, News24). We've written about canine-assisted therapy before on our blog, but miniature horses is a first for us and we felt it deserved its own recognition!
Lunar and Mystery spent the day spreading joy and excitement through Rush's pediatric unit. Many children got to enjoy some quality time with these soft, fluffy equines and for those who were "too sick to leave their rooms, [they] beamed with delight when the little long-lashed horses showed up for some bedside nuzzling" (AP, News24). How adorable!
To read more about the heart-warming visit from Mane in Heaven, please see:
Horses trot into hospital: It's therapy, no joke - News24, Associated Press
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