Smiles and stories abounded at the Hilltop House long-term care facility last week when the residents there got some special visitors on June 24.
Thanks to some local horse farmers, seniors got to spend time interacting with horses, goats, rabbits, a farm dog and even some chickens. It went — almost — without a hitch.
“Every animal acted on their best behaviour,” said Rory Bushfield, who transported the animals. “We only had one chicken get away, but we chased it down and everybody clapped.”
The day was inspired by local legend Cowboy Jim, who ran a successful horse outfitting company in Squamish Valley and is now a resident at Hilltop. He suffered a stroke last year, and some friends wanted to find a way to bring some joy to him and his neighbours at the residence. So, they decided to bring a whole farm to the hospital.
“We have a trailer for four horses. You can fit a lot of barn animals in that,” said Bushfield. “We basically fit the whole barn – bunnies, chickens, goats. It was pretty funny. I have a truck that I pull it with, and I know I have a few mice that live onboard, so they were there too – we had it all. It was fun.”
Vince Pennerun, friend of Cowboy Jim’s, and his business partner Stacey Paradine thought of the idea and made it happen.
“We were like, is that even possible? Then we chatted with the Hilltop people, and they said, ‘Yeah sure,’” Paradine said. “We told them we’re going to bring all the farm animals. And they were super down.”
The Hilltop residents — several of them over 100 — shared stories while they petted and held the animals and the dog Frankie made the rounds; one 94-year-old resident even shared that she used to take her horse on backcountry trips to Garibaldi Lake. Others talked about building roads with horses in the early 1900s.
“There were so many stories, all the history. I can only imagine all the stories we didn’t hear,” said Bushfield. “Everyone hung out for a long time, the people in there loved it, there were lots of smiles, it was super nice. This is actually a really cool thing to do. We should do this more. It felt good.”
