Residents of a long-term care facility were treated with a special visit from a 17-year-old horse from a local farm named Rapunzelle earlier this month.
On its blog, Northern Health details the visit at the Gateway Lodge long-term care facility on Oct. 7.
Gateway’s Recreation Therapist Supervisor Lynn AuCoin and her team facilitated the visit where they made sure everyone in the facility who wanted to meet, feed and pet Rapunzelle were able to do so.
The staff brought between 30 and 40 residents from Complex Care and Assisted Living to the courtyard to visit the special guest over the course of the afternoon.
AuCoin also helped answer questions residents had about Rapunzelle and along with her team had pockets full of carrots to give to residents who felt comfortable feeding the horse.
Northern Health says the residents were delighted with the visit and interacting with the horse and for a lot of residents it brought up a lot of memories of living on farms, ranches, and other horse experiences from their youth.
“One resident chuckled about sneaking out of the house at midnight to ride the ponies, and another gleefully remembered running around the legs of the Clydesdales on her family’s property growing up,” explains Northern Health, on its blog.
The health authority concludes that Rapunzelle was very well-loved and well-fed during her visit to Gateway and was more than once invited to become a resident herself.
