Sammi would make a good therapy mini when he is better, the smaller minis can have a little portable stall made to wheel them into facilities that have linoleum, like hospitals, to make visits. Hope he gets better to the point he could do this and have a job other than "yard art". Glad to hear from you!
I totally agree with your thought process, but would add a questionaire from facilities BEFORE an actual certificatoin was given. Obviously, I don't think anyone should just load up a mini without having some education before hand and that could be handled maybe, just thoughts going out on this, by a mentoring process. A mini and handler that has done visits with an excellent safety record teaches or mentors another team. But you have to have the ground people who have been doing visits active in this process and I guess that is where it should start.
Thanks for that Charlotte. I like a few and don't like a few. I don't believe that a person should hand their horse over to anyone is the one I don't like. Mine have been trained to also turn on forehand and haunces and to sidepass away from feet, wheelchairs etc. This also comes in handy when riding in elevators. I take mine for walks through town all the time. What is great about this is that there is a toy shop with a 7 ft stuffed bear standing outside. Mine totally ignore it. We have gone through construction sites and walk in down town Salem, Mass, which if you have not been to Salem, it it quite a seen. Anytime of the year, people are in Halloween costumes. I try to expose mine to as much as possible and make them as bomb proof as possible. I have yet to find anything Maggie is afraid of.
Did Delta charge you anything? I once applied about four years ago and they wanted some big bucks but had no real mini requirements.
That is exactly why I think the Minis should have their own group and their own certification, because who knows more about a mini than a mini owner. Most of these programs have no clue about horses. It was mentioned by sixstardanes that maybe a blacksmith and vet that knows the mini could do the evalution but Maggie, my mini, is a witch on wheels in her own environment and although good with the blacksmith, not so with the vet, they have not seen her work in a nursing facility. She has been trained so that when her "working" halter goes on, she knows exactly what to do, similar to police dogs who are fine with everyone until the "working" collar goes on. So there are a lot of "bumps" in the road to get this going, but I think that if we band together, hash over the certification thing and get a liability insurance program in place, maybe this will come to fruition.
I can very easily put together a website when everything is in order. I'll see what it will cost to make another.
That sounds great, thank you for the offer.
