Life Care brings a dancing horse to entertain seniors

COLLEGEDALE, Tennessee (WDEF) – If they can’t go to the show…bring the show to them!

That’s a daily challenge for elder care facilities and that’s what Life Care in Collegedale tries to do.

News 12’s Bill Mitchell gives us a look at just one of the activities in tonight’s Senior Matters.

A lot of the folks who live at the Life Care center in Collegedale know about horses. But until Wednesday, most had not seen a line-dancing horse. This stallion is named “Holiday”.
Ninety four year old resident Henrietta Hill and her husband used to own a saddle company.

HENRIETTA HILL, KNOWS HORSES “so, you know all about horses ? Yes Sir! Ok, what do you think of this guy here? He’s pretty sharp. I tell you, he’s a honey. I can tell the way you look at him he’s a nice baby..yes you are!”

The staff staged thIS performance on the parking lot….and it got a good reception.

JUANITA & GENE KELLY “He and I dance all the time…every weekend. Haha..so when ya’ll was doing the line dance..we done it every week.”

NINA STEPHENSON, FORMER MISSIONARY “ITS fantastic. I had horses from the time I was 6 until I went to Europe. But I haven’t been around horses since..so its a thrill to get to see him.”

Cavin Graham is the rider, and this is what he does every day–trains and shows horses around the country. How do you teach a horse to line dance?

CAVIN GRAHAM, HORSE TRAINER “Horses learn off the release ..so if I put my leg on and he learns to move away from that pressure..by me taking it off.”

Horse Owner Jala West does a lot of these shows.

JALA WEST, PAINTED PONY “Holiday is a Polish/Arabian and he’s my horse. And we do a lot of events with him..i have a little side business…and we do a lot of entertainment events with him.”

The goal, of sourse, was to put on a show that the folks here will enjoy—and seems like they did just that.
For Senior Matters, Bill Mitchell News 12 Now.