Advent Day Fifteen, Little Donkey

My new friend

Advent Day Fifteen, Little Donkey

“Little donkey, little donkey,

On the dusty road

Got to keep on plodding onwards

With your precious load”

 

Little Donkey was one of my favourite Christmas carols when I was growing up, and I had riding lessons, many moons ago, on Shetland ponies – yes, I was the short, chubby kid on the short, chubby pony. Sadly, after falling off one too many times, I lost my confidence and that is where my love for horses ended.

8-year-old me, with a Shetland pony in 1979

 

My bicycle is my pony, taking me off on wild adventures to pastures new, and since falling in love with cycling, I have never felt the need to swap it for a horse. I watch way too many Ambulance, A&E and Helicopter Medics programmes to feel happy around horses. I know you can fall off your bike and suffer injuries, but it is rarely the bike’s fault, unlike horses, who seem to enjoy throwing off their riders and then kicking or stamping on them for good measure. I’d go so far as to admit to having thought them a little bit evil, until I was introduced to equitherapie or equitherapy - the broad term for a range of equine-assisted activities for people who have physical, emotional, cognitive, or social difficulties.

 

The local Mellois branch of the France Alzheimer association, run by two French ladies, reached out a few weeks ago, in desperate need for some bilingual volunteers. Set up in 2017, with one volunteer supporting four families, it has now grown to two volunteers helping sixteen families, two of whom are British. Each month they run a number of different sessions for both patients and carers, including games therapy afternoons, walks, talking therapy sessions and an equitherapy afternoon at the local riding stables.

The Alzheimer's support group equitherapie session

 

Today was my first volunteer session where I met T and his wife and helped with the translation as he got to grips with grooming his horse Narciss, checking her hooves and walking her around the paddock. Despite this being the first time in many years he had been near a horse, he bravely agreed to mount and enjoyed walking around the arena with the others, although I think he was more taken with the grooming than the riding. There were certainly lots of smiles from everyone as they bonded with the (thankfully) docile beasts.

 

Afterwards, there was time for chatting, coffee drinking and cake eating before we wished each other a bonnes fêtes. I will definitely be back to help out again next year.