Miniature horse trained to help boy with rare illness

A miniature horse named Zoe is helping a special needs preschooler at an Alaska elementary school deal with mobility problems.



The horse is being trained to help 4-year-old Zaiden Beattie get around Russian Jack Elementary School in Anchorage. Zaiden has been diagnosed with A-T, or ataxia-telangiectasia, a genetic disorder that progressively robs him of his ability to coordinate movement, such as walking.

Zoe is the only service horse in an Alaska school and after multiple online searches, the only service horse Principal Elizabeth Hornbuckle could find at any school in the nation.


YouTube link.

Zaiden's mother, Lesley Zacharias, is training Zoe to help Zaiden lift himself out of a chair and walk steadily by grasping onto handles on the little horse's specially made harness. The horse is being trained to pick up objects and perform other tasks that could also help Zaiden.