- One sweet horse named Peyo is a trained therapy horse
- Peyo resides in Northern France and has been given the nickname ‘Doctor Peyo’
- He has been employed to visit terminally ill patients in the hospital
A very clever and sweet horse in Northern France called Peyo became a trained therapy horse. In Northern France, Peyo visits terminally ill patients in the hospital.
The gorgeous brown horse, now 19, has been known to stay and comfort people in the hospital in Calais, sometimes until the end of their life. Mainly, he has been a constant comfort for cancer patients, and has the nickname Doctor Payo.
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Before he became a medical horse, Peyo was a competition horse, and he and his handler Hassen Bouchakour would compete in dressage shows. However, Bouchakour observed that Peyo was a sensitive soul and could see he had a different purpose.
How did Payo become a therapy horse?
Well, after shows, his handler would notice that Peyo would find people he liked in the crowd and stay close to them. Almost as if he had formed a personal bond with audience members.
However, it wasn’t Peyo picking people on a whim. Later, Bouchakour saw that Payo was intentionally picking sick people.
Selflessly, Bouchakour gave up his competition dreams and had Payo trained to become a therapy horse. Now, he works for Les Sabots du Coeur (translating to the clogs of the heart), a French therapy organization.
Nine years ago, the horse and his handler began volunteering at Calais Hospital. Here, they visited palliative care patients to try to brighten their days.
How does Payo know who to go to?
When someone needs his attention, Payo will go and stand by their room door and raise one leg to notify his handler.
“It was very complicated to no longer be the master, and to be forced to admit that when [Peyo] detects someone [is sick], I am no longer in control,” Bouchakour said.
Bouchakour elaborated, “When he decides, I cannot hold him back, it’s a need, it’s visceral, it is in him, he needs to go, and cling on to the specific person he has chosen.”
For hygiene purposes, visits with the helpful horse would take hours of preparation.
Payo can clean himself, and when he needs to go number one, he notifies his handler.
On what Payo does for visitors, Bouchakour said: “With Peyo, we try to recreate life at the end of life, in order to fight, and create an energy to accompany families and caregivers. I accompany him, but I let him do what he wants; he’s the one who decides.”
As for his impact, Payo has over 100,000 followers on Instagram, and reports say his presence has drastically reduced patients’ pain.
Furthermore, his presence has been a significant comfort to families and caregivers of the palliative care patients.
