Whispering Manes recently began a field trip program with Sofia’s Hope, a nonprofit that organizes field trips for children with cancer. The children come in small groups with their parents to enjoy a fun day at the farm where the children ride horses, finger paint the miniature horses, and do fun arts and crafts and scavenger hunt games. We are now working to extend this program to include children in the palliative care program at Holtz Children’s Hospital. The PediPals Palliative Care program works with chronically and critically ill children and their families to improve their quality of life by providing memory-building experiences for them. Many of the children in this program are too unstable to leave the hospital and come to the farm, so Whispering Manes would like to bring the miniature horses to the children in our Minis On The Go program. This is a unique opportunity for Whispering Manes to share the joy and fun of miniature horses with critically ill children. The physicians involved in PediPals want to bring the miniature horses into a courtyard at the hospital where children who are well enough to leave their rooms can come and interact with the minis. Activities may include grooming, feeding, or painting the minis. For those children who are physically unable to leave their rooms, we are working with hospital administration to be able to bring at least two of the four miniatures into the hospital and directly into the rooms. There isn’t much that can change these children’s circumstances, but Whispering Manes believes that our miniatures have the ability to bring a smile to someone’s face and probably even some laughter.

Minis On The Go is a one-day field trip where we will transport four miniature horses to the hospital. Ideally, we will be able to schedule these visits no less than quarterly, but hopefully as often as monthly depending upon funding.