It’s not uncommon for Sharon Care Center in Centralia to celebrate milestone birthdays, but Saturday’s party wasn’t for one of the senior living center’s residents.
It was for Scribbles, a miniature horse who will celebrate his 28th birthday on April 5.
Scribbles received a lot of love from Sharon Care residents for his birthday, but he gave as much joy as he absorbed.
A retired cart horse standing 31 inches at the withers and weighing 200 pounds, Scribbles has spent the bulk of his retirement as a therapy horse with The Horse Prayer in Grays Harbor County.
The nonprofit, run by Stephanie and Kelly Swan, started out in 2017 as an equine assisted-learning program for children.
“He was trained to pull a cart, so he did that for shows and racing and things like that, but as far as I know, he has had no training in (equine therapy) at all,” Stephanie Swan said. “It’s all just what he does. It’s just why God made him.”
For the kids, Scribbles was “a good introduction to horses, being the size that he is and how calm he is,” Kelly Swan said. “Kids would graduate onto bigger horses and groom them and pet them and eventually ride them around.”
The nonprofit mostly shut down operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. About three years ago, shortly after restrictions on nursing home visits became more lenient, The Horse Prayer received a request for a nursing home visit in Aberdeen from a woman whose sister was ill and wanted to see a horse before she died.
“We took him up to a nursing home in Grays Harbor (County), and he just laid his head on the bed, and this gal, she just pet on him. He was so calm and just let her pet him until she fell asleep,” Kelly Swan said.
“He was just perfect. We couldn’t have asked it to be any better,” Stephanie Swan said. “As soon as we left her room, he grew 2 inches. All the people were out in the halls, and he just wanted to be everybody’s friend.”
“They just all lit up when they seen Scribbles, and that made us feel so good doing this,” Kelly Swan said.
Sharon Care received regular therapeutic miniature horse visits from Visiting Hooves before the pandemic and was looking to find a new provider after that nonprofit moved to Selah in 2022, according to Sharon Care Activities Director Tammy Vessey.
Vessey saw photos of Scribbles visiting nursing homes online and reached out to The Horse Prayer to see if the Swans would be willing to bring Scribbles down to Sharon Care.
“We got in contact with the nursing home here, and it’s just kind of grown,” Kelly Swan said of Scribbles’ nursing home visits. “It makes us feel good to see you guys smile.”
In “human age,” Scribbles is now in his mid- to late-90s, the same age bracket as many of Sharon Care’s residents.
While he has spent most of his life in good health, he had a health scare in December that led to him spending five days in an equine hospital in Snohomish County.
“He got really sick. His nutrient levels got way off, and we didn’t know what was going to happen,” Kelly Swan said. “We’re still not exactly sure what happened to him, but here he is.”
For more information on The Horse Prayer, including how to volunteer or enroll in the nonprofit’s equine assisted-learning program, visit https://www.thehorseprayer.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/thehorseprayer.
Scribbles has his own Facebook page and Instagram at Scribbles The Mini.
