Title: Miniature Horses Bring Joy and Comfort to Tuolumne County Public Health Staff

The Columbia-based nonprofit Little Hooves with Heart brought three miniature horses — Scout, Cisco, and Willow — to Tuolumne County Public Health on Wednesday to celebrate Staff Appreciation Day and National Therapy Animal Day.

Scout, Cisco, and Willow are descendants of miniature horses that were bred to work in mines and pull carts in narrow shafts and corridors below ground, said Sandra Mangrum, who helped found Little Hooves with Heart in 2021.

“Everybody in the Health Department needs to know how beneficial these little loves can be,” Mangrum said. “How can you not smile when you hear them clip-clopping towards you and coming up for a hug?”

Mangrum also works part-time at the county Public Health Department. Her brother, Howard White, and his wife, Nancy White, are board member volunteers with the nonprofit. They brought Scout, Cisco, and Willow so that county workers like Public Health practitioner Katie Johnson could take a break with the little animals.

The mini horses weigh from about 160 to 220 pounds, roughly one-fifth the weight of a full-size horse that can weigh a thousand pounds, Mangrum said. Their diminutive size compared to full-size horses is part of what makes them so appealing to humans.

“You’ll notice their backs are flat,” Mangrum said. “They don’t really want weight on their backs, but they can pull all day long. So they could pull carts through the mines.”

Mangrum and the Whites brought Scout, Cisco, and Willow to the Public Health Department in a minivan. They let the mini horses out on long-lead ropes, and Scout, Cisco, and Willow immediately began munching on green grass growing next to the minivan.

“They make you feel so happy inside,” said Debi Drake, a county Public Health program technician. “They catch you in your heart. It’s hard to put it into words.”

Maura Devlin, a county Public Health project specialist focused on oral health and kids’ safety programs, fed Scout a bite-size extruded hay-and-apple treat. Angelica Hurst, a county Department of Social Services meds clerk, said it was her first time interacting with the miniature horses.

Rozara Ellington, a county Public Health receptionist, took a selfie photo with two of the miniature horses.

“They’re like a shot of those little happy hormones,” Mangrum said.

Mangrum and the Whites said they take the miniature horses twice a month to the Mother Lode Regional Juvenile Detention Facility on Justice Center Drive to visit with young people who are incarcerated there, and “the kids get to interact with the animals.”

Mangrum said she founded Little Hooves with Heart in memory of her son, James, who was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma in 2006 when he was 17. Ewing sarcoma is a rare, cancerous bone tumor that primarily affects children, adolescents, and young adults. James spent a lot of time at the University of California San Francisco hospital.

“He spent so much time there that when animals would come in, it would just change his day,” Mangrum said. “I get a little teary about it. And so he passed, and this is his legacy. I want to be able to give other people the benefit of animals, and I’ve always loved horses.”

Her son was an Eagle Scout and was working on his Eagle Project before he passed, and that is why one of the mini horses she shares with people is named Scout.

“People think miniature horses are so cute,” Nancy White said, “then they want to have one as a pet. Then, they don’t want to take care of them. They have one miniature horse, and it gets lonely. Willow was originally supposed to be a companion to a bigger horse, and the bigger horse died. So Willow was running with a group of goats on someone’s land. They stopped taking care of her. Her hoof nails were so long she couldn’t walk.”

The mini horses are rescue animals and have been rehabilitated, but the nonprofit Little Hooves with Heart itself is not a miniature horse rescue. Mangrum is part of a separate nonprofit that specializes in miniature horse rescues called Angels for Minis in Contra Costa County. Scout, Cisco, and Willow were all rescued by Angels for Minis.

“They’re therapy animals,” Mangrum said. “They love interaction.”

Even though they are one-fifth the size of full-size horses, the Little Hooves with Heart mini horses can make full-size horse noises while they munch on grass, including full-bore snorts of contentment that drew laughter from all the humans.

For more information about the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Little Hooves with Heart, including visit requests and how to make donations, email littlehooveswithheart@gmail or call Mangrum at (510) 685-8328.