Gentle Carousel, a Gainesville non-profit organization, provides therapy horses to victims of tragedies like the Sandy Hook shooting and sick children and adults across the region.
Magic, one of Time Magazine's 10 most courageous animals, along with the rest of the horses visit patients at UF's Shands Rehab Hospital.
Jorge Garcia-Bengochea, Gentle Carousel's CEO, says it's the sound of Magic's hooves that get people smiling.
"It's a magical moment you'll never forget."
Magic visits patients at Shands every Wednesday hoping to bring a smile to their faces.
"This is the first time I've seen her get up and walk around the hospital a lot," Mike Jones says about her mother. "She actually got up today and got to see the horse and you could tell it let her up."
For another patient getting ready to head home, Adelina Gerry, it brought back old memories.
"In 1980, the first Saturday, there was a place that was selling miniature horses."
She says she and her husband stopped and looked. "We weren't tempted," she explains with a smile.
"Garcia-Bengochea says it's the tougher situations that make what they do worth it.
"It's the happiest time a child will have perhaps before their life ends," he explains if the child is suffering with a life-threatening illness or disease.
"It brings them back to a happy time with animals."
Magic was pinned an honorary deputy today for what she represents to Sheriff Sadie Darnell.
"The horse from a law enforcement stand point represents courage and good will."
Garcia-Begochea and his wife have been running Gentle Carousel for 15 years and says it's all about the effect Magic has on people.
"Sometimes you can't cure a child or an adult but you can put a smile on their face."
A smile that will keep him and his wife going.
Magic has been invited to Baltimore to visit with first responders after the riots. He is heading to Washington, D.C. for a law enforcement ceremony,
To learn more about Gentle Carousel Therapy Horses: click here.
(WCJB - April 29, 2015)
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