Title: Mini Horse Mighty Hope: How a Herd of Miniature Horses Provides Comfort and Healing
Author: Debbie Garcia-Bengochea and Peggy Frezon
Year Published: 2021
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
What's it about?: A couple uses their miniature horses to help others dealing with sickness and trauma. They eventually create the Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses where they breed and train miniature horses especially to visit those most in need in hospitals, children's centers, libraries, and after tragic disasters.
Likes: Everything.
Dislikes: Nothing.
Thoughts:
I LOVE this book! Horses have been a part of my life for almost twenty years, and because of them, I started working with individuals with disabilities through therapeutic riding lessons at my lesson barn. Disabled individuals and horses are still large parts of my life, and the fact that this book combines my two biggest passions is amazing!
Debbie writes the emotions she, her husband Jorge, and their horses share with those they visited so vividly. I could feel joy radiating from the pages in the happy moments, and I cried my own tears with their sad moments. The way the emotions jump off the pages only adds to the powerful message driving this book.
Debbie and Jorge care about other humans and all animals. It does not take long to learn that about them. They are able to showcase their horses' same concern for others. They have visited people in dreadful situations while trying to do their best for their horses, but the interactions they witness between the horses and humans are always nothing but pure love. They make any visit from their horses as magical, memorable, and positive as possible for the people they visit. This can include dressing the horses up, playing music, reading books, and handing out stuffed horses. Even seeing their process from the inside and only through words, I can still feel the magic, and I know their visits mean the world to those they encounter.
I also find it kind of funny that I recently bought the movie Apple of my Eye when I saw it in the drug store, and when reading Mini Horse Mighty Hope I learned that one of Debbie and Jorge's horses is in the movie! I still have not watched the movie, but I am even more excited to watch it now! Do you want a review of the movie?
This book has some heavy emotions in it at times, but it is such an inspiration. I want everyone to read this book!