Non-Profit organization, Honey’s Mini Therapy Adventures (HMTA), along with volunteer handlers and a stable of Mini Horses have been frequenting the hallways of TGH, bringing joy and calming distractions to patients and staff. When this group of volunteers make it past the lobby where TGH staff and hospital visitors tend to swarm around the mini horses and actually make it to the patient floors, the moments of caring and compassion are created and displayed in full color.
Much has been written about the benefits of pet therapy and the connection between horse and human and this team has taken that to new levels at TGH and the numerous Adult Care and Rehab Centers, schools, community events in the surrounding Tampa Bay Region. The smiles, laughter, and look of amazement on a patient’s and/or TGH staff members faces, along with a momentary animal connection or distraction from the often frightful hospital environment and are the only thanks this team of dedicated horse and handler combinations require.
HMTA has been in existence for 3 years and really started to make its presence known in Tampa Bay right before the Covid-19 pandemic struck the U.S and closed off access to all of the places that the benefit of horse therapy was destined to provide. Under the vision founder Mary Rose Gullet has for her Non-Profit Organization, she refocused her attention towards higher education in the mental health field, kept her core team of volunteers active in outdoor community events, and has come out of the pandemic with even more drive and dedication to bring a Honey’s Min Horse Therapy Adventure to even more locations in the region. The approval for HMTA services as a registered volunteer organization at Tampa General Hospital is a testament to HMTA’s vision to further touch the lives in as many ways as possible within our community.
For the love of humankind.