Balmoral Show 2024: Therapy Donkeys - Belfast News Letter - video Dailymotion

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Balmoral Show 2024: Therapy Donkeys - Belfast News Letter

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00:00 [Duck sounds]

00:04 Thank you, Tarlock.

00:06 What was the question?

00:08 Where did the idea come from?

00:10 [Laughs]

00:12 So I've always had my donkeys since childhood.

00:14 I got my first one at a year old and now I have 26 of them.

00:16 During lockdown I realised just how lucky I was

00:18 to have all this space on my family farm

00:20 and I needed a way to help pay for the donkeys.

00:22 I'd lost my job as a receptionist due to the lack of tourism

00:25 and I needed a way to pay for them.

00:27 So I started inviting people in for well-being visits

00:29 and used that money to help buy hay.

00:31 And it just kept growing and growing organically

00:33 until eventually I was able to get contracts

00:35 with the NHS and the Education Authority

00:37 for therapeutic work.

00:38 And in the last year we've focused a lot on tourism,

00:40 offering experiences predominantly on wellness

00:42 like goat meditation and duckless treks

00:44 but also now a heritage experience

00:46 where we're working with tourism and I and visit more and more.

00:48 I think for me it's getting up close and personal with animals.

00:51 It's that children learn a lot of empathy from working with animals.

00:55 That's something I think a lot of kids are lacking now

00:57 in the fact that so few kids have pets.

01:00 I grew up on a farm, I've always been surrounded by animals

01:02 and you learn how to understand what an animal needs

01:06 when it can't even tell you.

01:08 And I describe them as simple creatures, animals.

01:10 It's not derogatory.

01:12 It's the fact that they have their basic needs met.

01:14 Food, water, exercise, social life, sleep.

01:16 All the same things we need.

01:18 And what I love for kids getting to come to these stands

01:20 is to see those animals and understand how to look after an animal

01:23 and self-care as well.

01:24 It's all the same stuff.

01:26 My first donkey was Muffin.

01:28 She was given to me for my first birthday

01:30 and I now have the great-great-grandson of that first donkey

01:32 among my 26.

01:34 Then I got Dennis.

01:35 Dennis, when I was six, he came free with the pony

01:38 and I started carriage driving with him

01:39 and I came to our first Balmoral show when I was about seven

01:42 in the donkey and cart interview in the class.

01:44 And since then it just kept growing more and more.

01:47 Dennis has been on stage in Dublin in an opera,

01:49 he's been in three short films,

01:51 he was a talking donkey in his most recent film

01:53 and he's gone over to nearly over a thousand care homes

01:56 by this point, visiting residents, especially those suffering with dementia.

01:59 Animal assisted therapy has been growing in the last number of years exponentially.

02:04 It's very big in America right now and even in Britain

02:06 it's doing really, really well.

02:07 But in Northern Ireland and the rest of the island

02:10 it is only just on the cusp of it.

02:12 It's only just starting to come in.

02:14 I'm seeing new groups, like One Equine coming up,

02:16 who are trying to create a hub for people to get in touch

02:19 with equine facilitators for therapeutic work.

02:22 I do think it is an up and coming benefit for a lot of people.

02:26 I think we're still trying to prove that it works,

02:29 we have lots of scientific backing,

02:30 but this country often can be a bit slow in taking on new ideas.

02:34 But I think we're getting there, we're getting the support

02:36 of lots of different businesses.

02:38 The NHS are starting to fund it and I can see it really, really taking

02:41 a massive effect and a positive impact on a lot of people.

Balmoral Show 2024: Therapy Donkeys - Belfast News Letter

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