About Us

          THE STORY OF HOW CHEEKY LITTLE F MINIATURE THERAPY HORSES STARTED

For the past 3 years, we have been doing equine therapy with our horse, Danny D. 

We have made such a big difference in peoples lives. We have visited thousands of people and had just as many photos taken. In this time some of their stories are heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. 

So here is a little bit of our story.

My husband, Mick and I run a small hobby farm of miniature horses. We have a few horses that we show and we breed a couple of foals each year. 

Danny D was born 6/10/2015. He was around 40cm when he was born he was so little he started off ok but couldn’t latch on to get a drink. Every two hours I would wake up milk his mum. I used to Danny in my lap and bottle feed him. This went on for two days until I went out to feed him and he was helping himself to the milk bar. I could not have been happier. 

However, Danny did not forget the first couple of days where we bonded and thought he could still sit on me, even to this day, he still thinks that he can. 

As he got older, he was shown and did really well he got Supreme at his very first show. 

Eventually, when it came time to sell him, I just couldn’t do it! There was something special about him. We decided to keep him but being a gelding he needed a purpose. 

We thought he could go visit some age care residents as we knew a couple of people in some facilities in Goulburn. We thought he may get a couple of gigs. We contacted Taralga Aged Care Facility, they were more than happy for Danny to visit. This was going to be the real test for Danny. When we got there I didn’t know how Danny would go. 

When we arrived the residents were all sitting in a circle in the lounge room for us. They were very excited to see a little miniature horse inside. Many were ex-farmers and just happy to see a farm animal. 

We were very pleased by how Danny was with the residents and staff. Then we thought we would give it another go. This time we visited Gill Waminda as we had a friend in there. We decided to surprise the now late Nanna Bess with a visit from Danny. When we walked into her room, I have never seen happiness like it the smile on her face melted my heart. Danny’s fate was sealed, he was now to become a Miniature Therapy Horse. 

The Goulburn Post did a story on Danny D in their Thursday's free paper. I had a call from a lady, Dr Kim Kendall she is a world re-noun vet who has a practice in Sydney as well as a farm just outside of Goulburn. She kindly offered to pay for our insurance we couldn’t believe anyone would ever do this. Kim had paid our insurance every year since. We are really grateful for her help.

From that day on he has been known as Danny D therapy Horse.

The people who we provide equine therapy for really benefit from our service. By helping many types of people, our horses provide support for people that are suffering from physical and intellectual disabilities that include but are not limited to: people who are vision impaired, adults and children with autism. 

We have also visited Levi, who is a beautiful 9-year-old man from one of our home visits he has a disability called Pelizaeus Marzbacher Syndrome this is a very crippling disease. He has no movement and communicates by blinking his eyes. He does not get many outside visitors we were happy we could provide our services for him. He even blew us some bubbles showing his delight when Danny D touched his arm and breathed on him.

We are currently training up a couple of more horses to work with disability services and disabled people. 

There are a lot of lonely people in aged care facilities. Our therapy creates a sense of wellbeing and happiness. They have less stress, anxiety, some are that extremely depressed that they don’t even come out of their rooms, that is until they know we are coming. 

Our horses are trained to go inside the buildings, even venturing down the lifts which allow us to visit the more secure wards like the dementia wards.  I love the secure wards as the residents tell you stories about their younger days. Even though they cannot remember today, our visits brighten their day. 

Some of the residents have no movement. When our little horses touch their hand they have a sparkle in their eye. 

I have been in with a resident who they had called the family in as she was nearly at the end of her life. I held her hand on Danny’s nose, I had a feeling she knew he was there. He also provided a calming effect to the family who was very thankful for us being there.

We have just started Palliative Care Unit visits. These are tough since our younger brother spent time there before he passed. Most of the patients are terminal and at the end of their lives. I have personally witnessed the reactions of what the visits form our horses have done for patients that are in these units. As well as their families who mostly suffer from depression. Our horses provide a calming effect and helps them forget about their illness for just a short while, as they admire Danny and have normal lively conversations with us. 

I love being able to support these residents in such sensitive times.

The Camden paper also done a story on Danny Ds visit to the palliative care unit at Camden.

we have visited many places in Goulburn and the South Coast including:

• Gill Waminda
• Tenison
• Masonic
• Warrigal
• View Haven Crookwell
• Sunset lodge Taralga
• Hillside Figtree & their Dementia Unit: Greenhill Manor
• Warrigal at Fairy meadow, 
• Mt Warrigal 
• Albian Park Rail
• Clinton Place
• The Mcdermott Centre
• Cresent School
• Group Homes
• Goulburn Library
• Disability Services 
• Disability Day at Viola Arena
• Home visits for sick kids & adults
• The Daniel Morcombe Day for Farmer Fields. 
• We were even in the Daniel Morcombe calendar

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Equine therapy provides a sense of wellbeing. It has been found to improve mental health by helping with depression through stress reduction therapy. Since we have been providing our service for the past 3 years to people suffering from anxiety, depression, dementia, disabilities physical and emotional illnesses, I have seen the results first hand and they are astonishing. 

There is definitely a need for our organisation we are in high demand all the time, in fact, there is not enough people doing this type of therapy. We are proud of the job we have done with our little horses over the past 3yrs and pride ourselves on our services
We have just become the first registered not for profit Miniature Therapy Horse Organisation with charity status we are also DGR registered.

We are always looking for sponsors or partnerships with companies to help us continue the awesome work our Therapy horses do. Please don’t hesitate for more information

We have a couple of fb pages Danny D is the mail 1 and Cheeky Little F Miniatures

Thanks for visiting our page

Jodie