Our pets are important to us. They provide comfort and calmness, and it is now recognised that they can make a huge difference to patients and families during traumatic times.
Michael Sobell Hospice Nurse Consultant, Jo Fernandes, is a keen horsewoman and runs a horse visiting service that has helped bereaved children and inpatients for many years.
She explains: “What I have come to learn through taking my horses to visit hospices and care homes is that their presence by the bedside, or with a child who is grieving, is powerful. Horses have an intuitive ability to comfort those who are sick, dying, or grieving. It isn’t possible to describe what is happening when a horse ‘visits’ exactly. Each experience is unique and profoundly moving.
“I remember a grandmother who found it more bearable to say a final farewell to her grandchildren after they had all spent time together in the garden with a pony. She was so reassured that they would not remember the last time they saw her as weak and bedbound, rather as being ‘fun Nana’, playing with them, stroking the pony and spreading pink glitter on the pony’s mane trying to make her into a magical unicorn.”
