Tender Little Hearts - Mini Tales and Equine MIni Therapy

Serving the Community

Vision: Tender Little Hearts was organized exclusively as an equine based outreach for children and adults. We aspire to create an environment where every little horse or donkey is given a purpose to enrich a human life, bring Joy and comfort and leave every person with a reason to smile.

Mission: The mission of Tender Little Hearts is to build productive relationships and make a positive impact in the lives of others, by inspiring hope and transformation through interactions with our equines.

TLH has an exceptional niche as an educational literacy promotion program. We transport our minis around the Valley, without a charge, to a variety of libraries, schools, bookstores, child advocacy centers, anywhere a child can benefit from our reading services. Our unique and innovative outreach is the only equine-based organization offering an onsite reading program to facilities. Our organization only incorporates qualified miniature equine teams to provide these reading services. Our program not only promotes literacy and encourages reading, we offer comfort, joyfulness, empowerment, self-esteem and unconditional love while interacting with our miniature therapy horses and donkeys.

Our programs offer comfort, joyfulness, empowerment, self-esteem, unconditional love and many other therapeutic benefits while interacting with our miniature horses and donkeys. We can provide the qualified equine partner for adults and children with disabilities and will work with their speech therapist, counselors, OT and PT therapist.

We require all our equines to pass a skills and aptitude evaluation every two years to remain qualified as a therapy animal. Our therapy animals are qualified through the Miniature Equine Therapy Standards Association (METSA), Our volunteer handlers are trained to demonstrate best practices in handling, evaluating the requirements of a therapy animal team beyond basic obedience skills and receive a yearly update for training and refreshment of our handler methods.

Our Founder/President, Terry Holmes-Stecyk is certified as an Equine Specialist with the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH Intl). We have 2 certified facilitators for Horse Powered Reading®.

Meet our Qualified Team Partners

Buddy - Gotcha Day - 1/31/2021

Buddy is an 19-year-old miniature horse. His color is called a silver dappled Grulla. Buddy knows a few tricks and loves to play with his visitors. He fetches his toy bone, plays ball, shakes hooves and rings the bell. He loves to be groomed, hugged, go for walks and is just a loveable little guy we can't wait to share with the world. Plan a visit and come play with Buddy! He is so gentle and patient, even a young child can safely enjoy grooming his and our obstacle course.

Josie - Gotcha Day - 2/15/2022

We are very excited Josie is now here in Arizona with us. She was rescued from a kill pen in Oklahoma by Mini Angel Eyes. As with many rescued females, she was pregnant and unsure if the papa was another mini donkey or a mini stallion. Josie had a beautiful baby boy donkey who now lives in Colorado and will become a therapy donkey. Josie is approximately the same age as Boone and they are BFFs. Josie has the loudest bray! Even Boone gives her "a look" when she let's out a full HEE HAW! Josie is a favorite with our Mini Tales visits at elementary schools and the library. She also LOVES to be the beer or beverage burro at special events.

Bet Your Blue Boone - "Boone" - Birthday 8/8/2011

Boone is a registered miniature Sicilian donkey. She is 13 years old. Donkeys are a highly intelligent animal, despite a popular misconception of them being stubborn (well, maybe she is just a little). While Boone may be small, she is mighty sweet in personality and full of love. As a therapy donkey, she is a favorite amongst our home visitors as she quickly engages for attention and scratches. Come meet Boone and perhaps read The Wonky Donkey or The Dinkey Donkey to her.

Boone is also very popular at the Trailheads of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Boone is a Pathfinder Ambassador and helps visitors choose the best trails for hikers, bikers and horse riders.

Blueberry - Gotcha Day - 3/5/2023

Blueberry is a natural in equine assisted learning. He is so sweet and engaging with the children and is completely at ease on library visits, parades, and events he's attended. We are hoping to train him to pull a cart as he is so chill about everything. He's quickly becoming a crowd favorite with that Blue Roan coloring and gentle nature. Blueberry is 11 years old and we hope to have many years sharing this sweet boy!

Thank you to Jayne Vatcher and Cre8tive Events for allowing Blue to become part of our Tender Little Heart family. He is our proud herd leader!

The new kid on the block! Takoda - Birthday 4/15/2024

Meet Baby Bruce aka Takoda. The name Takoda is a Sioux word meaning "friend to all". Isn't that an amazing name for a future therapy mini? He is a leopard appaloosa with a very fancy pattern of black spots over his white coat. Takoda is as sweet as they come and was already well handled when he was donated to our programs. He loves to play with balls, toys, his big brothers and just about anything that enters the turnout is fair game!

Takoda is still a "baby" as he just had his first birthday. The plan is to start his "training" for visits once we are through this summer weather and enjoying cooler days again. I suspect he'll be on the visit schedule very soon. For now, he's enjoying the attention he is getting at home.

Thank you to Stephenie Bjorkman and Snuggle Farms miniature horses for donating Baby Bruce to Tender Little Hearts. We are completely obsessed with this darling boy!!

And another new kid on the block! Jack - Gotcha Day - 3/17/2025

Jack, a 17 yr old spotted donkey, is currently living at his foster care home with TLH family volunteer, Debra Lynn. He loudly brayed his excitement at seeing another equine after 11 years of living in isolation! He has since been gelded, is UTD on vaccinations and farrier services, he's been body clipped and had his teeth floated. He was truly a MESS but is now a healthier and much happier donkey. Currently we are evaluating if he has the disposition to become one of our therapy teams. He's as sweet as they come, but has led a life of loneliness and neglect of his physical care. We are taking it slow, giving him time to adjust, one day at a time. Sweet boy, welcome to your new life of friends and an abundance of tender loving care! You are loved and will be cherished!

What is a Miniature Horse?

Miniature horses or "minis" were first developed or selectively bred in Europe in the 1600s, and by 1765 they were seen frequently as the pets of nobility. Others were used in coal mines in England and continental Europe. Small British horses, as well as small Dutch mine horses, were brought to the US throughout the late 1800s.

The first mention of a small horse being imported to the United States was in 1888. In the mid-1880's, Mr. Patrick Newtall and his son-in-law, Mr. Juan Falabella discovered small horses among the tribes of the Pampas Indians in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Through successive crossings, they gradually bred the first well proportioned miniatures under 38 inches tall, the specialty breed of "Falabellas."

It is believed that the American Miniature horse utilized the blood of the English and Dutch mine horses brought to this country in the 19th century and used in some Appalachian coal mines as late as 1950. The American Miniature horse, as documented in the pedigrees of some miniatures today, also drew upon the blood of the Shetland pony.

As these small horses were being imported to the United States in the early 1900’s, Mr. Norman Fields of Bedford, Virginia started to raise them for working in the coal mines. By 1964, he had 50 miniature horses in his herd. Another breeder who promoted miniature horses in America was Walter Smith McCoy. He bred small "pit ponies" in West Virginia in the early 1900s to sell to the mining companies. When machines began replacing the ponies, McCoy began to sell his smallest horses for better prices as novelty pets and exhibition animals.