Mini horses help ease travelers’ nerves
Wendy and Harley hoof it through the airport, decked out in their red and pink Valentine’s best. Mouths drop and heads whip around. Many travelers haven’t seen a couple quite like them before, especially not in an airport.
They’re horses. Miniature therapy horses, to be more specific. They’re in from Seven Oaks Farm in Ross for their twice-monthly visit to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
And their effect does seem to be therapeutic, or at least moodimproving. Those mouths that dropped in surprise quickly break into smiles. Suitcases and neck pillows and purses find a temporary home on the airport floor, freeing up travelers’ hands for the more pressing task of petting the fuzzy, tiny equine.
The horses and their handlers can’t get very far without attracting a small audience. And the people who stop vary greatly: A woman pushes a child’s stroller near, at the same time that an apparent business traveler in a sportcoat bends down for a nuzzle. A pilot stops and raises his smartphone, long enough to take a few photos or maybe shoot a short video.
“They’re just too cute! I have to take a picture,” Marshall Baugh, who works in the airport, exclaims. “My granddaughter’s gonna freak.”
Clad in a shirt with the hashtag #ittybittyhorses, Lisa Moad, president and founder of the non-profit Seven Oaks Farm, is quick to invite them over. Her horses, after all, have trained for this, with Moad rolling suitcases past them or impersonating a “little-girl run” by rushing up and squealing. “They’re pretty well-received everywhere we go,” she said.
“There’s a whole body of re- search literature on the effects of therapy animals that does show that there are positive effects,” said Melissa Robin Shyan-Norwalt. She’s an assistant professor-educator in the University of Cincinnati’s department of psychology and a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist through the Animal Behavior Society.
Some of those studies have shown that petting an animal can lower blood pressure and stress levels, she said.
“Not only does the animal like it, but it does do positive things for humans in a physiological way,” she said.