Elderly residents know tiniest visitor is a Lady

Lady, with owner Dawn Miller, gets some attention from Stan Fokerd at Monte Vista. Picture / Alan Gibson

Miniature horse Lady was as gentle as a lamb when she paid her first visit to a Taupo rest-home.

She had taken over the task of bringing cheer to elderly residents from her stablemate Honeydew, who is in foal.

Six-year-old Lady, herself a mother of two, was docile and friendly as her owner, Broadlands farmer Dawn Miller, escorted her round the dining room, lounges and some of the bedrooms at Monte Vista rest-home and hospital last week.

Mrs Miller visits local rest-homes by invitation several times a year. She sometimes also brings a hen or a rabbit for the elderly to pet.

Other volunteers have come with dogs and cats, said nurse manager Carol Rogers. A particular favourite was a lamb that residents took turns to feed from a bottle. It was sporting dashing-looking nappies for the occasion.

Mrs Rogers said animal social calls were encouraged. They prompted reactions from introverted residents and sparked childhood memories.

Some of the elderly had lost sight and hearing but touch was still "very significant" and they loved meeting the tactile subjects.

"It brightens up their day, which can be quite long," she said. "It is just one of the many activities we have to entertain them."

Said Mrs Miller, who has nearly a dozen miniature horses on her steer farm: "It is great to see their [residents'] faces light up. Some people who don't seem to want to be there respond to the animals and come alive."

Miniature horses were ideal because they were manoeuvrable indoors, she said.

The patient Lady seemed happy to be patted and fussed over, resting her chin on a chair here, nuzzling an arm there.

"Aren't you beautiful? You're a lovely, lovely creature," said 102-year-old Eden Robertson, who wanted to know all about the new equine visitor.

"She's absolutely marvellous," she said, echoing the sentiments of others. Lady brought back memories of Mrs Robertson's Hawkes Bay childhood and her own horse, Raven.

"There were no motor cars until I was about 7."

She and her sisters loved to go driving in their governess' horse-drawn cart, "a gorgeous maroon red".

Lady handled her first official outing with aplomb, but blotted her copybook when she had an "accident" in the corridor.

"Oh no, she's doing a plop," came the cry. Mrs Miller was carrying a bucket and spade, something she had not needed in the past for the more self-controlled Honeydew.

"We have never had messes before from visiting animals," said an unperturbed Mrs Rogers.

"Old people and children have accidents, too. It's not a major - just a fact of life."

Lady will be invited back but maybe, like the lamb before her, she should wear a nappy just in case.