Therapy dogs are well known, and certainly do lots of good work in the realm of healthcare, but the idea of therapy animals can extend far beyond just dogs. Like one hospital in France that has a therapy horse named Peyo.
Peyo displays a lot of behaviors that, while unique and even baffling in horses, makes him the perfect companion and a well-loved visitor by patients.
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Peyo the horse used to take part in equestrian shows — that is, until his trainer realized something special about him.
Hassen Bouchakour noticed that Peyo seemed to constantly crave human contact. After shows, he’d pick out people in the crowd to go to and hang around, seeming to enjoy the company.
Bouchakour suspected Peyo was choosing people for a reason, and after years of veterinary specialists researching Peyo’s behavior, they were able to deduce that he could seemingly detect those weakened by physical or mental illnesses and wished to spend time with them.
The specifics of his behavior remain a mystery, but that knowledge alone led Bouchakour to have Peyo registered as a medical therapy animal.
Peyo now works with Les Sabots du Coeur, an organization in France dedicated to various forms of therapy. They help organize his visits to Calais Hospital, where he visits patients and helps them in the many ways he can.
In fact, he helps *so* much, that research is still being done regarding him.
Not only does he reduce anxiety in patients as well as provide comfort, but he has some more notable effects as well. In an interview with The Guardian , Bouchkour said, “What really pushed scientists to take an interest in him […], was this [seeming] ability to greatly reduce [the patients’ dosage of] all hard drugs […].”
That’s not everything in his list of extraordinary abilities; he also chooses which patients he wants to visit.
Bouchakour leads him around, and Peyo either stops or raises his leg to indicate what room he’d like to enter next.
“[…] when [Peyo] detects someone [is sick], I am no longer in control. When he decides, I cannot hold him back, it’s a need, it’s visceral, it is in him, he needs to go and cling onto the specific person he has chosen,” Bouchakour told The Guardian .
It’s thanks to all his help that he’s earned the nickname ‘Doctor Peyo’, and is a welcomed guest at the hospital by patients and staff alike.
“Hassen and Peyo don’t only provide comfort to patients but to us, too. In tough situations we are very happy to see them around,” says said Nathalie, a nurse in the palliative care centre at Calais Hospital.
Peyo has been a well-loved visitor since 2016, and has visited over 1,000 patients, providing comfort and support in every way he knows how.
h/t: The Guardian
