Doctor Peyo, a therapy horse from France, recognizes people in pain and offers comfort to cancer patients.
Almost everyone has heard of comfort dogs, cats, or even pigs. But have you ever heard of a comfort horse?
Yes, there is a therapy horse named Doctor Peyo, an 18-year-old stallion who spends his days meeting and comforting palliative care patients at Calais Hospital in France.
Owned and trained by Hassen Bouchakour, a professional showman and equestrian trainer, he bid farewell to his successful career for the sake of his horse.
After conducting shows at various events, Bouchakour noticed that Peyo would randomly pick up visitors from the crowd and refuse to leave their side.
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Upon probing them, he realized that Peyo would invariably pick up sick visitors who were suffering from some sort of physical or mental ailment.
Bouchakour, veterinarians, and animal behaviorists have failed to understand how and why is Peyo drawn towards people who need comfort.
Recognizing this innate quality in Peyo, his owner quit his career to work alongside him to achieve a higher purpose in life.
In 2016, Bouchakour and Peyo began volunteering at Calais Hospital, where Peyo, selects his patients by standing outside their door and raising one leg.
In his entire career of giving therapy, Peyo has comforted more than 1,000 patients as he brings joy and peace to them in their final moments. Sometimes, the patients feel such immense relief from pain that doctors take them off strong drugs.
Nicknamed “Doctor Peyo” by hospital staff and patients, Bouchakour makes sure the animal is thoroughly cleaned and sanitized before and after every visit to the hospital.
It takes him nearly two hours to fully clean the horse with disinfectant wipes, but Peyo enjoys this process. Even during hospital visits, Peyo is trained to signal his owner when he needs to relieve himself by swaying his body from side to side, prompting Bouchakour to take him outside.
A therapeutic organization called Les Sabots du Coeur, meaning the clogs of the hearts in French, is studying Peyo and his extraordinary abilities to sense pain and even reduce it significantly.
Initially, Bouchakour found it difficult, to let go of the reins and hand over the controls to his horse. However, with time he has learned Peyo’s remarkable abilities to alleviate pain and suffering as he lets him choose the patients he wants to stay with. Bouchakour believes Peyo is his life partner and a true friend.
Peyo and his miraculous abilities reveal that there are things in this world beyond human understanding. Pain and empathy are universal, and the stallion can sense them without the need for language.
