As regional director of the nonprofit Gentle Carousel West Miniature Therapy Horses organization, Victoria Nodiff-Netanel has been using her team of miniature therapy horses to spread comfort, happiness and healing to children and adults who are bereaved, stressed, sick, traumatized or in crisis.
“I do something different and challenging and wonderful with these horses every day,” she said.
Nodiff-Netanel has spent countless hours training her team of Gentle Carousel miniature horses to be comfortable in human environments. With their immaculate grooming, inquisitive natures and cute overload, people of all ages tend to be drawn to the little horses like magnets. Humans usually find the experience calming and engaging, and the animal’s small size gives them access to people in need.
Reserve Deputy Steve Sullivan with the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station and Nodiff-Netanel are special volunteers with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and partner to take the tiny horses for appearances. All of the horses can also be called upon as first-responders to situations involving a traumatized child. “The horses are always ready,” she said.
Nodiff-Netanel and the horses wear special deputy uniforms whenever they make appearances for the Sheriff’s Department, which have included story times at the Malibu Public Library, Bank of Books, local schools, emergency preparedness events and the 2016 Rose Parade. She’s also been a speaker during the Malibu Chamber of Commerce Veterans Day Ceremony with her horse, Pearl.
In addition, for the past seven years, Nodiff-Netanel has visited the Los Angeles Veteran’s Administration Hospital once per week, with each of her five horses on a rotating schedule. They visit staff and patients in all areas of the hospital, including the Intensive Care Unit, psychiatric ward, oncology and hospice. The veterans love seeing the horses, and some have even asked for a visit as a “last wish request.”
The horses also go on regular visits to Ronald McDonald Houses in Pasadena and Los Angeles where children stay with their families while going through surgeries and treatments at nearby medical facilities.
“These angelic little horses bring joy and comfort to children, siblings and parents alike,” Nodiff-Netanel said. “It helps get their minds off what they’re going through. Some of the kids are terminal, so we create a lasting memory for the family by taking photos with one of our horses.”
Sullivan and Nodiff-Netanel also took two horses to visit the families and survivors from the San Bernardino shootings. “We had a very special time,” she shared.
The team of five miniature therapy horses — American Valor, Black Pearl, Willow Blue, Liberty Belle and Sky Blue — has become a member of L.A. Mayor Garcetti’s Crisis Response team as first responders, wearing special pads with emblems.
The horses received a special invitation last summer to attend the L.A. 2015 Special Olympics World Games, where they attended the final leg of the Torch Run in Calabasas, went to a welcome reception for British athletes and coaches at King Gillette Ranch, and spent four days at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center helping to de-stress the athletes.
Valor accompanied Nodiff-Netanel on a plane trip to Washington, D.C. earlier in the summer for “an incredible week of events.” They made official visits to the Children’s National Hospital oncology floor, an Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS) luncheon, a veterans’ hospital, several memorial ceremonies, private visits to COPS families (who lost a parent in the line of duty) and visits with two Congressmen.
Nodiff-Netanel is expected to bring one of her horses when she accepts her Dolphin Award.