Pipsqueak

One day, in my aviary of Love Birds, I found an egg that had fallen out of a nest and the baby was half way out. After carefully removing the rest of the shell I put him in a box of cotton-wool and fed him with a bobby-pin. I made his food out of everything his mother ate plus some bread and milk all ground up in a blender. Having to eat every two hours he came everywhere with me and was quite popular. As he grew the gullet that used to fill up with food and look so ugly, began to disappear and his feathers began to grow. Pipsqueak, as we called him, turned into a beautiful yellow bird with blue tail feathers. He lived free in our bedroom and sat on my shoulder every morning to make coffee. The aviary runs the full length of one side of the house so you can watch the birds from several rooms. It was better than Dallas, the mothers teaching the babies to fly, the building of nests, the fight for residential counsel-flats or flower-pots and especially the flirting. Love Birds are monogamous and will even pine to death if they lose a mate. Both parents take part in the raising of the young and look like hedgehogs when they fill their feathers with bits of palm leaves to build the nest.

Every once in a while I would take Pipsqueak out to the aviary to meet some of his own kind but he always flew straight back to me, not wanting to have anything to do with the other birds. After two years of constant companionship, I put him in the window to chat with the others, when his behaviour became very agitated. He kept squeaking and flying back and forth to the window then my shoulder. I took him inside the aviary where he promptly left me and joined a blue Love Bird. Pipsqueak never came back to sit on my shoulder or come in the house. After a while I could't even tell him from the other yellow ones. With my feelings very hurt I asked my father why he thought that he wouldn't even come see me inside the aviary. As always with my father's quick wit, he said "well if your mother looked like that would you want to introduce her to your friends?" He didn't mean it in a hurtful way he just meant that with me being so big and of another species I was quite a spectacle. By the way it turned out Pipsqueak was a girl and had batches of green and red Love Birds.

Honda

When I moved back to Mojacar in 1980, I dreamt of having a stable of beautiful Spanish horses and giving each the name of a car like Morgan, Alfa or Jag but as it turned out my first purchase was a black mule whom I named Honda because she was cheap and reliable. The drawing of the cart above is the old cart I turned into a mule-taxi and Honda and I took people up and down the beach or from bar to bar. Being the first taxi in Mojacar I was issued with licence plate No. 1. The plate was made by the famous playwrite, artist and local resident Win Wells because the town had no such facilities. I'm sorry there are no pictures to show but I only had a poloroid which a good friend had bought me because I wasn't making any money seeing as all my clients were friends and I couldn't charge them but they all bought the pictures and that was my income and probably the best job I have ever had.
Things were very primative then: the beaches virgin, the people friendly. The weather was always beautiful and modern conveniences were unheard of. In those days the local doctor still made his rounds of the farm areas on horse-back for which I accompanied him many times.
To do the laundry, one went to the Arab fountain at the base of Mojacar, where water ran 24 hours a day and went down troughs that you had to stand in up to your knees and rub bar soap on the worn rock wash-boards. The used water continued down to irrigate the farm-land, each according to his 'hours'. It was always a fun time because we would load up Honda, go to the shop at the fountain, buy a melon to put in the icy water until we had finished washing clothes - the rinse-cycle was acomplished by our children standing up to their waists in the fountain and stomping up and down on the laundry until the soap was out. Then we would wash our hair and share out the melon. It was a great social meeting place; then we would go home with all the gossip of this interesting and relaxed little community.
One day when Amber was in nursery school, in the plaza of Mojacar, there was a terrible ruckus - it turned out that Honda and our Great Dane had gone walkabouts and ended up in the village. Not knowing what to do they got three-year old Amber out of school to deal with the situation. She tied the mule to the iron grates on the window of the school and took the dog inside. When I went to pick her up she rode the mule home. She was considered quite the little heroine because the locals were scared to death of both animals.

How the Cow Jumped Over the Moon

This is a photograph of a family portrait I once commisioned. It was painted by the French artist Jean-Marc Faure. From the left, there is Negrita the sheep, Petite Suisse the cow, three horses Cura, Oli and Casi (la potra: the foal) and in the foreground, Lorca our first Briard.
The subject of this story is Petite Suisse and how my father learned where the childrens' poem of the cow that jumped over the moon came from.
When we first moved to Mojácar there was no fresh milk, what we had was milk with the cream taken out, pork fat and formaldahide added. Of course there was no refrigeration so it made sense.

I had made it known amongst the local farmers that I was in the market for a cow and it became a standard joke, but after a few years I was sitting having lunch at the Focus, one of our hang-outs, when a man arrived and asked if I was the lady that had ordered the cow. Being rather taken off guard I said "well yes", so he said, good because he was the cow salesman; that she was in a truck in the parking lot and I was to take her so he could continue delivering the rest of the calves. I looked in the truck full of calves and had no doubt which one was mine. Seven day old Petite Suisse. To the amazement of the many onlookers, I picked her up, put her in my car and took her home. My father, who by this stage of my life, was not surprised by anything I brought home, said "is she just visiting or is she here for good?" Without another word he left and came back with baby bottles and UHT milk. She roamed free with all the other animals and, as is so common in my animals, she suffered an identity crisis. She thought she was a dog or at least she acted like a puppy, running down to the car to greet you, jumping up and even coming into the house. As she grew in size and affection we started having to contain her a bit which turned out to be harder than you might think. You always see cows so peacefully in a field with a small fence around it and never trying to leave but Petite Suisse wanted to be with us at all times. We started with collars and ropes, then moved to chains and finally to the stables with their typical stable door, built to keep a stallion in, only to get home to find her waiting on the terrace. Her escape was remarkable and that is when my father said he now believed the poem of the cow that jumped over the moon, because the space of the open door was smaller than she was and higher than her head. Soon after, one time while I was filling her water bucket, an old habit of hers was suddenly repeated as she jumped joyfully into my arms. Unfortunately, she weighed in at around 300 kilos and the two of us fell into a nearby manure pile, sliding merrily down to the bottom. My father was luckily on hand to dig me out.

She never produced milk, of course, because of the absence of bulls in the area. She was a wonderful pet.

Life Returns

These are the new shoots on a burned eucalyptus one month after the Mojácar fire (which burned several thousand acres, including most of our land). For one month there were no mosquitos or flies or fleas to bite us. Sadly we lost a lot of the more attractive local wildlife like the hares, wild tortoises (tortuga mora) and the local lizards. We saw frightened birds flying off with their wings on fire. We hope that the swifts who nested under our beams managed to fly to safety. We were visited by a few of them in the following days, but they should be in Africa by now.

The house (which miraculously survived the fire) was filled with frightened tree rats, snakes and centipedes but only the centipedes survived the smoke and intense heat. Here is a picture of one my son found in his bed today. These three-inch long fellows give a really nasty bite.

The capers are already growing out of the black ash and the cactus are shedding their skins like snakes to find a new green cactus underneath. The roots of hundred year-old carob trees burnt underground for weeks and the trees will return. The last picture is of the corner of our terrace where you can see the contrast of the green and the burnt on either side of the two wooden horses.

La Hipoterapia

Quiero aclarar algunos puntos sobre la hipoterapia, ya que esta poniendo muy de moda y centros están abriendo por todo los sitios. La hipoterapia es una terapia para hacer conjunto con las otras terapias no en vez de ellas. La hipoterapia es una forma de equinoterapia médica. Los alumnos nunca aprenden a montar en si, pero aprovechen los movimientos del caballo para conseguir un mejoramiento muscular y de circulación y equilibrio al mismo tiempo recibiendo un masaje de los órganos mejorando el sistema digestivo. Siempre está dirigida por un fisioterapeuta y un profesor de equitación.
Antes de empezar hay que tener un certificado médico por cada alumno ya que hay varias contraindicaciones. Asegurar que la vejiga esta vacía, elegir un caballo de tamaño y paso adecuado por cada alumno y que el caballo ha hecho todos los ejercicios muchas veces antes. Debe de tener a alguien guiando, y no tirando, al caballo y no faltar a dos ayudantes, laterales. Porque la mayoría del trabajo es lento y aburrido por el animal: haciendo círculos, figuras de ocho y serpentinas, y es importante que el caballo tiene un buen ejercicio antes de las clases. Las clases empiezan con solo unos minutos y lleguen hasta los 45 minutos casi siempre terminando con el alumno tumbada boca abajo como un saco de patatas para quitar liquido de los pulmones: que es difícil para alguien en silla de ruedas. El tobillo, cadera, hombro y oreja siempre deben de estar en línea, así consigues mejor movimiento del tronco y el beneficio consecuente de los movimientos del caballo. La hipoterapia está casi siempre hecha a pelo o con una lana, para evitar rozaduras. Muchas veces, dependiendo del grado de discapacidad del alumno, se necesite un back-rider ó sea alguien montando detrás del alumno para sujetarle.
Muchos de las clases empiezan con la limpieza del caballo por el alumno. Esto ayuda al alumno en conocer al animal mientras que mejora su coordinación y musculatura. El caballo debe de estar muy cómodo con las distracciones como pueda ser una silla de ruedas, rampas, grúas y otras cosas necesarias para subir el jinete. Por falta de control corporal es importante que el caballo se acostumbre a ruidos y movimientos bruscos o desequilibrados. Un caballo con alta escuela puede recibir signos conflictivos por los movimientos de las piernas del jinete. En nuestra experiencia, los caballos aprenden rápido cuando tienen un alumno discapacitado y no dan caso a las ayudas de la doma normal proporcionadas por su jinete. Puede ser porque no llevan brida ni silla durante las clases y tienen a alguien guiándoles.
Volteo hace una buena preparación para el caballo porque durante una clase de hipoterapia el alumno puede montar mirando hacia detrás, tumbada, de lado o incluso de pie, descalzo. Hay algunos alumnos de la hipoterapia que también aprendan a montar, todo depende de su grado de discapacidad.
No olvide que hay que tener una póliza de seguro bueno y permiso por escrito para sacar o usar fotos de los alumnos.
ANIMO ya no está funcionando como centro, pero estamos abierto a ayudar a cualquier centro o hacer ponencias y cursos.

Holidays are Here Again

I thought you would enjoy another wonder of Spain. Saint’s Days. Everyone in Spain has a saint’s day which is more important than your birthday. It can be annoying. For example everyone that works at the electric co. is called Antonio, which I know because it is June 13, Jessica’s birthday, so none of her friends could ever come to the party and no one was left to watch the electric company's dials and collection of bits of wire. Then every village, town and city has at least one saint’s day, whose fiesta lasts from three to ten days depending on the size of the pueblo. This means 24 hours of music and dancing and much more. If a town has a specialty like running the bulls then everyone takes the holiday.
After each day-off work or public holiday you have the 'Dia de la Resaca', which is hangover day and it is acceptable to stay in bed. When there is a national holiday you get what is called a puente or a three or four day weekend. If the holiday falls on a weekend, then that isn’t fair to the citizens so we give it an extra day. Next month, May, has three puentes so it is basically a couple of days a week of work during May. We have 'regional holidays' as well – the Día de Andalucía is on Feb 28th. Then you have Semana Blanca - a week off in February - which everyone has to go skiing.
The schools sometimes go out ‘on strike’ as well… I am sure there are more but my eyes hurt.
Oddly, birthdays don't count for much, but of course you have your Saint's Day instead (unless you have one of those 'strange' Anglo names...).
Then, Spain's lucky workers get double pay at Christmas and July.
Then there's the glorious siesta from two to five. No fast food here.

Arf

We found this picture in the album - it's the kitty meeting our Briard puppy for the first time.

New Course in Almería

José Luís Gallego from the University of Almería will be holding another course, both technical and practical, on all types of equine therapy at the University of Almeria and on site at a center for riding for the disabled. Together we printed a book after the last conference with information from starting a center, such as the right horse and tack for each individual problem, all the way to the most modern medical information and formation for instructors. The book was in Spanish and the only one of its kind and unfortunately sold out way to fast. There is still a huge demand for this information in Spanish. After this course a much more complete book will be published.
The course will be held in April or May of this year and I will keep you updated on more details.

Famous People

While I have been living in Spain I have had the privilege to know some of the most interesting people. I have always worked in charity and have found that a lot of them are complete frauds but many are wonderful, it is very important to find out where the money goes to and follow the progress of the charity you have chosen.
Every year I wrote a supplement for my husband’s paper The Entertainer. I wrote one on animals, one on ecology, one on NGOs, and one on education. The full page promotion was given free, to each group and I found banks etc. to sponsor the articles and ads. The one thing I learned is that the front page lead story had to be by someone important and internationally known, and then it was a breeze to get sponsors. I had a lot of way-out ideas and was often taunted by the staff but I am pleased to say that all of my celebrities except Prince Charles were forthcoming. I had a lovely letter from Prince Charles apologizing, but due to the media frenzy around Lady Di he was unable to comply with my request for an article.
I had seen a talk on T.V. given by Pope John Paul II on ecology and thought I would give him a try to see if he would be interested in helping. I had no idea how to start and no one believed in me, but a friend sent me a sarcastic letter saying that if I really wanted the Pope I should call this number. After screwing up my courage I called. I spoke to a charming man in a strange mixture of languages, after understanding what I was after, the secretary told me I had to go through the press office, who sent me packing. A day later I got a call from the Vatican from this lovely man who would not give me his name, however he passed me his Holiness’ private secretary’s number. On calling him and explaining my project, he said he would present my proposal to His Holiness and get back to me. After a few weeks I received a letter from an archbishop in Spain who memorably said “patience child patience”. Some time later, an article arrived from the Pope together with a photograph and a nice letter from some senior Vatican staffer. No one could believe it. My feeling was, it’s always worth a shot.
I also contacted the representative of the Dalai Lama in Spain, Who said he would try and pass my message on but that the Dalai Lama was traveling and very busy. I was very pleased when I finally did receive a letter and picture, which we actually had to edit because it was so long. On another occasion, I wrote to the Queen of Spain, about her anti-drug charity, F.A.D. She was very pleased to help and I was actually invited to the palace to receive the photo and article and meet with the head of her charity.
Another fascinating man I met was Padre Angel, a world known priest who has spent his whole life helping every kind of person in need and setting up centers to help them all over the globe. He could not have been kinder or more helpful and he came down expressly to Mojácar to see our facilities and also kindly invited me various different centres he runs in Madrid and Extremadura. I was introduced to him by a man from Telefónica called Paco Limonche, who believed in me from the beginning and helped me with contacts and invited us to an international convention in Madrid where our service dogs did demonstrations and even appeared in a small television advert for the phone company.
Here is a picture of Padre Angel when he came to visit ANIMO, I subsequently helped him with other projects.
Another supplement I did was on horses. I was put in touch with Her Royal Highness, Princess Beatriz, president of the Arab Horse Association, who was so kind and comforting because as an American I had no idea how to deal with royalty. I met her in her office in Madrid. I did not know if I had to curtsy or bow or kiss her hand but we just sat down and had tea and talked about horses and my charity. She was charming and knowledgeable and friendly.
I have met so many wonderful people here from shepherds to royalty, they all have their story to tell and have all made me feel so welcome and blessed to have made their acquaintance. I did many more supplements but you get the idea of what I mean when I say this is a wonderful country and very genuine people.

Cookie and the Ratón Pérez

Cookie is a pure black cat with a wonderful disposition. We found her when she was a day old in a hole in the road with her brother. We brought them home and gave them to a strange little dog someone had abandoned that we had taken in a few weeks before. The dog looked like a fox and mothered everything she found. She was still a puppy herself but was already caring for and nursing two baby rabbits. The kittens took to her with no trouble and grew to be strong. I don’t think any of them knew what type of animal they were. We found a home for Cookie's brother and we kept Cookie. Our children were very young then and dressed her up in dolls clothes, pushed her in a pram and even sat on her by accident from time to time. She never scratched and just put up with every thing. She followed them everywhere.

I don’t know what they have in other countries, in USA we have a tooth fairy, and here in Spain they have a mouse called the Ratón Pérez. When you lose a tooth you put it on the windowsill at night and the Ratón will change it for money. Ever since our daughter Ami was old enough to have a tooth fall out and learn about the Ratón she was very frightened that Cookie would catch the poor little mouse and eat it. You see Cookie was a very good hunter and she would always bring her catch home to show us first, and only then she would eat the whole thing, as it was meant to be in nature. It makes me sad to see a cat catch a bird, lizard, rabbit and the like but I know that is how it was meant to be in the wild, as long as they eat their prey and not just play with it and then leave it on the floor. It is a natural instinct.

When Ami lost her first tooth we put it in the window, as we should, and in the morning we heard shrieks and crying as she came running into our room. She held in her hand a large dead tree rat. She was crying so hard about what she had always feared but she did eventually say, “well at least he left the money first”. Lenox had of course snuck in during the night and switched the tooth for a coin. We tried to explain to her that the Ratón was much more important than the money because he had so many more children to see and then we told her that the poor dead creature wasn’t the Ratón Pérez after all, but a tree rat that Cookie had brought home to show her. So it all had a happy ending, except for the rat of course, but I’m not sure Ami ever quite got the moral of the story.
(Bottom Picture: Cleo)

Dog Pictures

Here are two of our dogs, enjoying the Spanish countryside. The photographer appears to favour the Briard. ¡Así es la vida!

New Year - New Energy!

I am sorry that it has been so long since this has been updated. Since the ANIMO center has closed I have just been doing consulting and my daughter Amber has been giving a few presentations. There are so many new groups starting and it seems that there is now money available for AAT programs. I still recieve about ten call a week from people that are just starting out. What I would like to do is have everyone in Spain that is involved in ATT send in a small resume of their program such as: type of disability, number of students, location, experience, status (non-profit, paying, profession of staff, when you started and what type of aid you receive). I would like to have a data-base to help get to know what is being offered and to have this information available to everyone so we can all help and to have a support group to help with questions and to stay up to date on what is happening in this field.
I have been recovering from an accident and an unknown fungus that I caught in the hospital which we have only now been able to diagnose and treat but I am afraid that in the meantime the fungus has done major damage and left me fairly disfigured. I am learning to cope and would very much like to stay on top of what is going on and help where I may as it is all I have done my whole life and seeing the results has meant so much to me. You can E-mail me at brbrnapier (at) yahoo dot com. I will publish all information sent to me.

Una bitacora completa

De Chile viene una página bastante completa.
Francisco Javier Urra dice -
Este BLOG , es una invitación para todas las personas que deseen conocer y comprender como desde la Ciencia se explicarían los motivos por los cuales permitiría al Caballo participar activamente en la rehabilitación de personas con discapacidad o con necesidades educativas especiales. Así como también un llamado abierto a todas las personas interesadas en compartir el amor por los caballos, y la Equinoterapia, buscando un continuo perfeccionamiento, manteniéndonos actualizados con nuevas metodologías, eventos, estrategias, intercambiar experiencias y materializar una red de apoyo nacional e internacional.

http://equinoterapiachile.blogspot.com/

Por nuestra parte, seguimos con problemas de salud - por lo tanto, no podremos ayudar mucho a los que se ponen en contacto con nosotros. Lo cual sentimos mucho.

Winter Post

Things are a bit quiet on the blogging front, but I shall be more fruitful after Christmas and the visit from the family.
Quite a lot of people wish to start up some form or other of riding for the disabled here in Spain - and they often find their way to my telephone - there are still, unfortunately, not many people I can re-direct them to.
So - from The New Year - I'll put energy into both this blog and all the different forms of animal assisted therapies available in Spain...
Until then
'¡animo!'

Raising Our Puppy

We brought home a Briard puppy for our anniversary and my birthday in July. He wasn’t quite six weeks old. At home we have an old dog, 20 in fact that is more like a cat than a dog because it is impossible to train her. We love her more than anything but she is a very bad influence on our new puppy. My son also has a 2-year-old Greyhound-Labrador cross. She is more greyhound than Lab but has those wonderful qualities of a lab. She loves water and will fetch anything and bring it back in one piece. She did not need much training it just came naturally. She never leaves home but pines when our son leaves. Her name is Charlie and we are so lucky to have her. She is a model example for our puppy who is called Chico. Everyday she play-fights while teaching him balance, coordination, how to survive in the world while at the same time improving his muscle tone and energy level. He is still quite uncoordinated but improving every day. I think we will have the fastest Briard in the world and he can turn on a dime. All of these things are helping me to train him. He is very bright, learns quickly and is adorable. Chico also helps me feed all of the other animals where he is very calm and easygoing with them. I know he is too young to start real training but he is getting a good head start thanks to Charlie. My last two dogs were a Briard and then a Bearded Collie, so I have had one before. They were both wonderful and trained to be service dogs. The Bearded Collie even got to go on TV and do an advert for the telephone co. Chico is much more in tune to sounds and his surroundings than the other two, so I hope when he is older he might be a demonstration dog to help promote Animal Assisted Therapy. In my last entry I mentioned two new types of service dogs, I have now seen a documentary on ‘Diabetic-Dogs’, which are very successful and growing to be known all over. They have even been proven to be more accurate than the blood-test kit that diabetics have to do many times a day.

Notes on Riding Therapy

Horse therapy for depression, stress, anxiety and menopausal problems. This is an unofficial study but observation I have made over many years with myself and many other women. We all know from studies that riding improves circulation, muscle tone and massages your internal organs but I found that it also seems to help drastically when you are depressed or stressed even going through the menopause. Every time I was feeling bad my husband would say why don’t you go riding. I always felt like a new person when I did. Many other women I spoke to said they found the same results even to the point of being able to reduce medication and always slept better. I think it is time someone did an official study on this because my results from a large group of women were very impressive and worthy of a study.

The Friendly Wild Boar

This is a picture of Theodore, our wild boar, and a Doberman that came to class for the first time. You can tell by the look in her eyes the terror she felt being kissed by a wild boar. Theodore was a main attraction at our farm school because he was bottle fed and lived in our house until he was too big, playing, sleeping and eating with the dogs and cats. As he grew bigger he moved into the larger animal pen where he lived with sheep, ducks and the like. He always liked to sleep on our patio with the other animals. By the time he was full-grown, in fact ‘enormous’, he moved in with the horses and donkeys where he had a large area to roam and against all rules of nature he was loved by all of the animals. He used to come on walks with us and participate in riding lessons. All the school children could pet him even though he got to be about 200 kilos and had huge tusks. Due to his friendly nature and because he was basically free to go where he wanted, he frightened many walkers and workmen so he finally had to be put in with the other wild boar. He always remained friendly and had a companion called Rachel who in turn had many babies. He was a wonderful father and adjusted fine to a less affectionate environment, we still always let him out loose and to play with the other animals or come walking with us in the country.
My father always said that my animals had identity crises from being raised in the house on a bottle and associating with so many types of animals. Most of them were given to me by farmers who could not raise them or were just thrown in my driveway. As a result they were all a valuable part of our Animal Assisted Therapy program called ANIMO. I have many more wonderful stories and for those of you interested the technical part is at the bottom of the page.

Two New Jobs for Assistance Dogs

I was watching a documentary on T.V. the other day and the topic was about dogs, assistance dogs in particular. In one case dogs were trained to help children with learning disabilities and reading disorders to learn and enjoy reading. It was amazing. First the children were introduced to their new teacher-friend, then the dog would sit next to the child and listen while the child read, if the child had trouble with a word or grew tired of reading the dog would put its paw on the page or start to pull the book with its mouth very gently - this made the child tune in and continue or ask for help. I don’t know how they got the dogs to realise when the child had stopped and that it should help out but it has turned out to be a very successful program and the children couldn’t wait to get to reading class and to please their new teacher-friend.

The other story was about dogs with very strong mothering instincts and how they became mother and teacher to abandoned wild animals. The dogs cleaned, played with and taught the newborns like lions and panthers to live and grow into adults. Of course they could never be released into the wild again but they would have died if not for these wonderful working dogs. I then realised that I had had two such dogs myself. Many years ago, I found a puppy that was abandoned in our driveway and soon after found in the rubbish a box with two baby bunnies and two black kittens, all still with their eyes shut. I took them home and tried to bottle feed them but very soon the puppy started to sleep with them and stimulate them while they nursed the whole time leaving the puppy with scratches and bite marks but she never left their side and would carry them around the house. After about two weeks she had milk and was able to take over the feeding job as well. Thank you Foxy!

For twenty years now a small dog named Freetxua has lived with us. She was given to my son when he was about one and she was just a couple of weeks old. She has mothered and nurtured everything from one-day-old chicks to lambs and wild boar. She is so maternal that she will take care of any creature from the time it is born until adulthood. She is still going strong and remains an important part of our family, animal and people alike. This is a picture of Freetxua with Lucia. Lucia was bottle-fed and now is about 80 kilos and comes everywhere with us. She still plays with Freetxua. The name Freetxua comes from “free to a good home” and we just dropped the “good home” bit (although it is) and call her Freetxua.

Miguel Rios Lends a Helping Hand

Miguel Rios, one of Spain’s most popular rock musicians and famous personalities, lent a helping hand, literally, to ANIMO a few years ago. During the time of Franco, sign language was forbidden, so it is only recently becoming acceptable for deaf people to use it. ANIMO, along with its Animal Assisted Therapy, also gave classes in sign language, to both the deaf and the hearing. Miguel Rios is a kind and agreeable friend who regularly visits Mojácar on his time off. He showed great interest in ANIMO and its techniques in therapy. He enthusiastically agreed to help raise funds by doing a concert supported by a sign language chorus, the first of its kind in Spain. Despite being rather ill with the flu on ‘the night’, he sang two of his biggest songs, ‘Himno de la Alegria’ (that Bach thing) and Santa Lucía. He was accompanied by Pepe Grano de Haro from Los Puntos, some session musicians, our daughter and around forty people including deaf, physically handicapped and some children from the local community who came to ANIMO every day to learn how to sing in sign language. To watch them all signing along to the songs was quite inspirational. All the T.V. stations were there and they played to a packed house. It was so beautiful to see that you couldn’t help but be moved emotionally. There is nothing like bringing the disabled into mainstream life! Thanks Miguel!

Equinoterápia en Santander

A congress organised by the Organización Mundial de Turismo Ecuestre is putting on the I Congreso de Equinoterápia in Santander on April 7th and 8th.
The speakers are Fernando Alivés, Dra Isabel Goirigolzarri, Juan Gómez Irurutegoyena, and from the FRDI, Mercedes Jiménez Horwitz. Information and prices from Inagropec on telephone 976 662 817

For information on what's happening in Mojácar - go to www.theentertaineronline.com