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.