Therapy horses kick off summer reading at Alachua Library

Children at the Alachua library raise their hands as they vow to be kind to all animals as a tribute to the memory of Catherine Hubbard, one of the Sandy Hook children for whom Catherine the horse is named.

 

HIGH SPRINGS – The Alachua Library, located at 14913 NW 140^th St., called upon the folks at Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses and asked them to join their staff on Thursday, June 13 to help kick off the library’s summer reading program.

The “Reading is Magic” program garnered such enthusiasm from area children and their parents that the library had to issue tickets and limit entry to 150 people in order to maintain fire code limits. Families who could not get tickets still waited patiently outdoors to see the little horses as they arrived and walked into the library building.

The “Reading is Magic” program included a video, a book reading and a visit from some of the tiny horses, along with their caretakers Debbie and Jorge Garcia-Bengochea.

The book talked about baby horses and included the introduction of a future therapy horse foal named Sweetheart, who went to the library with her mother, Vanny, to visit with the children.

A video about the therapy horses as they worked inside various children’s hospitals was also shown. The video was dedicated to Catherine Hubbard, a child lost in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy and for whom one of the young horses was named.

Following the video, Catherine joined the group and visited with the children. “It was awesome to see the real, live horse after reading about her in the book,” said one young visitor.

The audience was told that Catherine was named after the little Sandy Hook girl after they heard her parents say she was always kind to animals. “We don’t usually do that [name a horse after a specific person],” said Debbie Garcia-Bengochea, “but we made an exception this time for this horse and this little girl.” After the children heard the story about Catherine, they made a public pledge to always be kind to animals.

This was the first public program the group has participated in since their return to the Alachua/High Springs area from Moore, Okla., where they were requested to visit and help the town heal from the devastating EF5 tornado of May 20, 2013. The group was forced to run for their lives while in Moore as a second tornado bore down on the area on May 31. The therapy horses and their caretakers returned to Moore again after the second tornado left the area and stayed a few more days to help those children and families who had suffered through two devastating tornadoes in nine days.

Each horse goes through a training program to learn to walk up stairs, ride in elevators, straddle tubes and wires and offer love and compassion to those people who need it most.

“Invariably, our horses will seek out the person in a room who needs them the most,” said Debbie Garcia-Bengochea. Not just any horse can be a therapy horse. “They are special horses chosen for their empathy and intelligence,” she said.

Donations to the Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horse program are needed to help keep the program active. While both of the Garcia-Bengocheas work jobs to help continue the program, “we are always in the red,” said Debbie Garcia-Bengochea. A 501(c)(3) tax deductible donation will help the organization continue their work visiting nursing homes, children’s hospitals, hospice facilities, and disaster areas where they are needed to help heal communities and bring a little joy into people’s lives. Contact can be made with the group online at http://horse-therapy.org/ or by a Google search for Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses.

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