Mane in Heaven offers pet therapy with miniature horses

CHICAGO (WLS) -- You may be familiar with comfort dogs. They are often used for pet therapy to work with sick patients or to help calm those who have experienced trauma.

Now a local woman is finding that dogs are not the only four-legged friends who can work miracles.

The organization is called Mane in Heaven, and they are finding that miniature horses can have an angelic effect on people with disabilities.

Jacob is blind and wheelchair-bound, but the touch of a smooth nose and a soft mane brings unbridled joy. That reaction is how Jodie Diegel, president and founder of Mane in Heaven, knows that her brand of pet therapy is working.

"Horses are healers," Diegel says. "A visit is an exchange of unconditional love."

Diegel started the all-volunteer non-profit back in 2012. In addition to emotional healing, the visits also promote physical therapy.

She works with the residents of Marklund, a residential facility for children and adults with severe and profound developmental disabilities. They say these visits make a world a difference.

"It's allowing them to reach their arms out, which is extending their muscles because a lot of times they're more constricted up," says Dawn Lassiter-Bruesk, who works at Marklund. "It's good for their strength training because sometimes their heads would be down more often than not but they're paying attention because they're so cute, so they lift up their neck muscles."

Mane in Heaven has a total of six miniature horses, including two new ones that are in training.

"We have to desensitize them, train them to accept wheelchairs, walkers, go up to people who might clumsily pet them," says Diegel.

Diegel hopes the expansion will allow them to increase the number of people they reach.

"When you see our horses visiting most of us often have tears in our eyes," she says. "We're smiling ear-to-ear. We always say it's as much therapy for us as it is for the people we visit. We're really the honored ones to be on the other side of the rope."

Mane in Heaven is funded primarily through private donations. The group does not charge a fee for visits with the horses.