Pony power

Miniature ponies are having a positive effect on residents in care homes around the county, thanks to an award-winning initiative by Dr Kaf Barriball.

“Animals just seem to know what you need, I know it sounds like a cliché, but it’s true, they just have this way,” says Dr Kaf Barriball, who sees the positive effects that animals have on people every day.

She was inspired to start Rainbow Dreaming – a Community Interest Company delivering therapy pony visits in Skegness and the surrounding area – after seeing the impact miniature ponies Jo and Mim were having on her mum Janet Bond, and the other residents in her care home, when Kaf took them in.

Rainbow Dreaming officially launched as a CIC in 2021 and now five years on, Jo, a black 10-year-old miniature Shetland pony who stands just 31 inches high, has won an award for his therapy work.

He is also joined on visits by Bugs, a seven-year-old American Spotted Miniature horse, and together they’re bringing joy to many people who wouldn’t otherwise get to meet and interact with animals.

Meet and greet
Kaf and her small team also offer pony and unicorn parties, and their equine friends make appearances at weddings and other special events, to help subsidise their therapy work.

“There must be around 300 care homes in Lincolnshire, and we’ve visited over 80 – it’s amazing to see the effect the ponies have on people,” says Kaf.

“My mum developed dementia, it progressed quite quickly, and seeing Jo was one of the few things that brought her out of her shell and gave me my mum back for a while.

“The first time I took him into the home to see her was amazing – I don’t think any of the staff could quite believe their eyes. The buzz and the joy there was palpable.

“That’s when I decided that visiting people like mum, who are no longer comfortable or able to leave their home, with Jo was something I wanted to do more seriously.”

The idea to take her ponies into the home was sparked by a newsletter Kaf read while visiting her mum, which mentioned how the residents had enjoyed seeing a pony through the window.

She asked the manager if she could go one better and bring a tiny horse inside to meet everyone and to her surprise the visit was approved.

She initially took along her friend’s horse, Mim. She was then joined by Jo, who last year won the BBC Radio Lincolnshire Make a Difference Animal Award.

Kaf explains: “There are people who we are told are non-verbal who respond to the animals and the staff are just left gobsmacked. I was visiting one home recently where there was a non-communicative resident, but I went in to see her. Jo had his head on her bed, I took her hand and put it on his muzzle, and I couldn’t tell if she looked happy or terrified, her face was definitely saying something. She smiled and laughed. The staff thought it was magic. At times like that, I just think Jo is a legend, despite his naughtiness!”

Equine intuition
Kaf says Jo has really grown into his role. She took him in when he was just 18 months old, having been separated from his best friend who had gone to live with someone else.

She describes his demeanour as that of an angry, feisty teenager but nevertheless she persevered with him.

“He really didn’t like people or attention. Trying to brush him was impossible – he hated everything about it. I just thought he needed a bit of understanding,” she recalls.

“I really liked him, he was a cheeky little so and so. We spent a lot of time together and just seemed to hit it off. We went for walks, and he started to come out of himself.

“For him to win that award was lovely recognition – it was so unexpected, but lovely.

“He can have someone in fits of laughter one minute – things like sticking his head in an empty laundry bin to wear it like a hat and he’s quite known for stealing biscuits too – and the next he’s quietly resting his head on someone’s bed. He just seems to know what people need.”

Kaf has always loved horses. Born in Bolton, and raised in Hampshire, she admits that spending time at the stables was always preferable to schoolwork.

She started riding when she was nine and took up a training role when she left school, with the ambition of becoming a groom.

“I didn’t want to teach, I just wanted to look after the horses and to ride them myself,” she adds. “I never had pets when I was younger, but I’d been riding for a while, and some of my bosses let me compete with their horses, nothing major, they were hunter trials, similar to the cross-country element of eventing.”

She progressed to running yards and after chatting to a colleague signed up for an equine studies degree, which she completed at De Montfort University as a mature student.

“During that time, I was given my first horse – he was 28. I gave Nimmy a home, even though he wasn’t the easiest of horses to ride. He was difficult, quite strong and opinionated, but he was my first horse, until he was 33,” recalls Kaf, who went on to study for a PhD in Equine Biomechanics before taking up a role as a lecturer in Lincoln.

Care home visits
When Kaf’s parents’ health began to fail they moved to a care home in Skegness to be closer to her. Sadly, her dad Peter passed away shortly after the move, while Janet died a few months after Rainbow Dreaming CIC launched.

Kaf also organised unicorn parties before securing a bit of funding to make her CIC a reality.

“Lincolnshire is such an agricultural county, I’ve spoken to so many people who tell me they grew up on farms that horses used to work on. Then there are people over near Grimsby who worked in the pits with ponies there. I’ve met a German prisoner of war, and someone else who was 106.

“All of these people are fantastic. Nobody really thinks about care homes until they have to, it’s really sad – these people have lived such amazing lives,” she says.

“To be able to take the horses in and see what a difference they can make to people is a real privilege – it doesn’t feel like work at all.”

For more information visit www.rainbowdreaming.co.uk

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