‘MY MAGICAL HEALING HERD CAN TEACH US HUMANS A LOT’
From performing in the West End to mucking out stables, how the actress’s love of horses is making some very special children so happy
“Grimbo put his head gently down into a little boy’s lap as he sat in his wheelchair and the hairs on my neck stood up. It was such a deeply moving moment and one I’ll never forget. It was as if Grimbo understood that here was a new friend who needed to be treated in a very special way.
“Now Grimbo, Mr Smith, Thelma and Daisy will stand calmly while the children look and feel and touch and pet. They know instinctively what they need to do and that they need to modify their behaviour while they’re with the children.”
The sanctuary, nestling in rolling acres of Surrey countryside just south of Guildford, is one of the chosen charities that will be supported by the War Horse Memorial Fund once fundraising for the bronze statue to be sited near Ascot racecourse is completed.
“Running the Mane Chance costs between £280,000 and £300,000 a year and 80 per cent of what we raise goes towards charitable work with the horses,” Jenny explains. “I’m so grateful to the War Horse Memorial Fund for choosing us to benefit. I feel really passionate about what happened to the horses during the First World War. They did their part to keep the soldiers going and the soldiers looked after the horses, so there was that great human/horse connection that is so important to me today.
“It wasn’t a relationship of dominance but one of partnership. They were friends, mates. Horses will keep going for their human friends until they drop.”
Now at Mane Chance the horses take on a new role, still helping humans, but in a much more spiritual way. “People come here and their lives change,” says Jenny, her eyes glistening. “We had a teenager who when he first came just grunted and hardly wanted to do anything. By the time he left he was wonderful young man, and that was because of working with us and the horses.
“The kind of equine-assisted therapy we want to do here gives the horses a purpose, which is fantastic. We don’t just want to use them as tools, we want to work in partnership with them, so they can live naturally, but be able to work with people as well.
“Horses are very magical creatures. They can sense when you’re feeling depressed or when you’re happy. This is because they have a very similar limbic system to ours, the most similar of any mammal.
“I believe that what we witness between horses limbic empathy.”
Call it what you will, there’s no denying the remarkable work the charity’s horses do for children. “Because horses live in the present moment they can sense when you’re being what I call incongruent, when you’re pretending outwardly you’re fine when actually you’re not, and they don’t want to know you then.
“They don’t mind you saying, ‘Listen, I’m a bit scared’, because they can deal with that. What they react to best is when you’re calm, when you deliberately leave your busy mind at the edge of the field, and go up to them and try to enter as close to the present moment as we humans are able to.
“My goddaughter and I experienced that this morning when the Shetlands were getting a bit excited and we just stood close to them and emptied our minds of all thoughts, taking our busy minds right down. Soon we had five horses who were so calm they were ready to go to sleep!
“This is what we want to do with our Chance2Be programme, to teach young people that there is another way, that there is a tool for their lives, that if you can master mindfulness – and the horses will tell you when you’re being mindful – then you can use it when you’re anxious with exams, when you’ve got a problem at home, if you’re being bullied. They can actually take that mindful moment with the horses and learn the skill that will serve them so well.”
Jenny, whose partner is Bill Kenwright, the theatre and film producer who is also chairman of Everton, has a host of stage appearances to her name, but is best known for her role in the film Local Hero and for six years playing QC Jo Mills in the long-running BBC drama series Judge John Deed. How does she fit her animal work in with her career?
“It’s difficult! I have taken a little bit of a back step over the past five years. But I’ve managed runs in the West End and I’ve got another film out at the moment, Another Mother’s Son, which has so excited people that it’s now No 8 in the DVD charts. In the autumn I’m going to be doing a new show in the West End, which is terribly exciting.”
However, one suspects not as exciting as her next production: the sanctuary’s open day this Sunday when families can enjoy quality time with the horses. Grimbo and his friends in the Shettie herd will be waiting along with special guest TV presenter Eamonn Holmes. It’s an experience not to be missed. and humans For more visit manechancesanctuary.org/open-day is