It all started with one little horse.
Back in 2008, Victoria Nodiff-Netanel had a dream: combine her lifelong love of horses with a desire to help people. That dream became Mini Therapy Horses, a now-viral nonprofit that’s melting hearts and soothing souls across California, one tiny hoofstep at a time.
“My whole life changed with this one little horse,” says Nodiff-Netanel, who once rode dressage and now serves as president and executive director of the charity. The “little horse” in question? Pearl, the very first member of her now 9-horse team of miniature therapy heroes.
“I started training Pearl to do different things, and that’s when I got my light-bulb moment of how wonderful it would be to share my passion and connection with horses to help people,” she told PEOPLE. “I didn’t know anything about animal-assisted therapy at the time. I started taking one step at a time with my one horse.”
That one step turned into weekly visits to veterans’ hospitals, children’s hospitals, schools, and even the Los Angeles City Fire Department. In fact, her pint-sized herd played a major role during the recent L.A. wildfires, comforting first responders and families who had lost everything.
“We did so much work during the wildfires and in the past with fires, we have now become part of the L.A. City Fire Department,” Nodiff-Netanel says.
The program, which includes equine-assisted therapy (EAT) and equine-assisted activities (EAA), is as expansive as it is impactful. From helping children in intensive care to soothing patients in psychiatric lockdown units, these therapy horses are trained for it all, literally.
“All the horses are washed, their hair is braided, and they all wear shoes,” she says. “Each one knows how to maneuver in tight spaces, stay calm in loud situations, smile, play instruments, and adapt to anything. We rotate them so they never get burned out.”
A recent viral video showed one of the horses gently waking up a child from surgery by playing an electric keyboard. It wasn’t a fluke: “Every horse in my care can play the piano,” she says.
“When someone’s hugging a horse, everybody becomes very quiet,” she adds. “It allows people to make that emotional and spiritual connection. It really helps. Sometimes kids or adults will talk to the horses or cry with the horses, hug the horses, things that’ll happen that won’t happen in other situations.”
Her connection to the work is personal. Since her father was a veteran, one of the first places she visited was the local VA hospital. “Now, at the VA, we’ve been in the intensive care unit. We run a program in the lockdown psychiatric ward with the horses, which is rewarding for these veterans. A lot of them are homeless, they’re addicts. They’re going through a lot,” she says. “The horses have an extremely calming effect. With the horse, we work together on social, emotional, and spiritual behaviors.”
Of course, none of this would be possible without her incredible support system.
“It’s donations from people who love the horses that keep the horses fed and the programs going,” she says. “People can see all the different ways the horses help people. All these places we go to, from the police department, the fire department, to the schools, we’re the only horses going there.”
And she’s the first to give credit where it’s due: “It takes a team to do this, and I couldn’t do it without my volunteers. Volunteers are everything. Without them, I’m just one person with a little horse.”
But oh, what a little horse can do.
“Every visit, we come away with special moments,” she says. “The horses are magical, and the connections they make are magical. They react to things so gently, so calmly and with such sensitivity that people feel so comfortable around them. Here’s this tiny little horse they can touch and interact with and hug and feel her heartbeat.”
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