A new equine therapy partnership between Nemours Children’s Health and the North Florida School of Special Education (NFSSE) is bringing new, reciprocal opportunities for children and teens at both organizations.
Specially trained, miniature horses from NFSSE will regularly visit Nemours Children’s Health youth to provide them with equine-assisted therapy and activities.
NFSSE students will be able to access services at Nemours as well, said Jennifer Pfieffer, APRN, ESMHL. Pfieffer is Nemours Children’s Health director and senior equine specialist in mental health and learning for the Assisted Dog & Pony Therapy Program (ADAPT). She is also a pediatric clinical nurse specialist in diabetes education and transition self-management for teens.
The ADAPT program at Nemours uses animal-assisted treatment to support children with chronic medical conditions like cancer or diabetes, integrating miniature horses into structured clinical sessions. The new partnership with NFSSE ensures consistent access to trained therapy horses and handlers, enhancing therapeutic continuity and safety.
The ADAPT team at Nemours includes licensed mental health professionals, medical care providers, psychologists and social work medical providers. All team members have extensive animal-assisted therapy training, and many have graduate degrees in animal-assisted counseling or PATH (Professional Association for Therapeutic Horsemanship International) certification. PATH certifies and accredits equine centers, instructors and specialists in accordance with nationally recognized professional standards.
Pfieffer said that while considering ways to improve the consistency and cost-effectiveness of Nemours’ equine therapy program, she decided to contact someone at NFSSE to discuss their program. The school offers its equine therapy sessions at an on-site barn, thanks to the generosity of philanthropist Delores Barr Weaver. The Delores Barr Weaver Therapeutic Equestrian Center is named in honor of her support for the school’s mission, its faculty and its students.
“I was fortunate to talk to Faye Clever, NFSSE barn manager, about their program, but they only had one miniature horse,” she said. “I offered to find more miniature therapy horses with just the perfect, calm temperament that were already trained or could be trained and certified…if there was a way that we could partner to offer equine therapy services at both of our locations.”
The result of that search was two miniature horses that were graciously donated by one of the first Nemours ADAPT graduates, and a third horse that could be leased long-term. Executives from both organizations met and agreed on this mutually beneficial partnership to share the horses and offer equine therapy for children and teens at both Nemours and NFSSE.
The three participating miniature horses – Pip, Squeak, and Skeeter – were all initially evaluated for program participation by Nemours equine specialists. They have acclimated to their new home stable at NFSSE, completed their standardized training requirements and Pet Partners registration, and are now successfully working as part of an equine therapy team, Pfieffer said.
To be registered with Pet Partners, therapy horses must pass a veterinary health screening and demonstrate proficient obedience. Together, the horse and trainer team must pass a skills and aptitude test and an in-person evaluation of both the handler’s and the horse’s ability to work calmly, safely, and effectively together in a community setting. Pet Partners is a national nonprofit organization recognized as the leader in animal-assisted interventions. It trains and registers teams of therapy animals and handlers to provide comfort and support in settings such as hospitals, schools and workplaces.
Before the new partnership, Nemours had contracted to use two miniature therapy horses, Gypsy and Taco, who had to be transported from their St. Augustine stable. This round-trip journey was much longer for the horses and more costly than the seven-mile trip between Nemours and NFSSE. It took an hour for handlers to prepare the horses for travel, load them into a horse trailer, and complete the journey before they could even begin any scheduled therapy sessions.
Gypsy and Taco were such favorites that they were treated to a full-blown retirement party at Nemours. While they may have left the Nemours program, these patient and student favorites are still active in St. Augustine’s HAALT Therapeutic Center Program (Hands On Animal-Assisted Learning Therapy). HAALT offers equine-assisted therapy as part of its mental health counseling services for children, teens and adults, and is a PATH member center.
Pfieffer said that the horses help chronically ill children with worries or anxieties about medical treatment, chemotherapy hair loss, or pain from mild to severe conditions. She described it as a labor of love, noting that handlers and trainers can empower a child by allowing them to lead a horse or brush its mane. These actions – passive or more active – can all build confidence, a sense of accomplishment and sense of wellbeing when patients face uncertainty or must be away from home.
“A therapy horse can create a peaceful bubble around that child, teen or young adult, making learning or conversation more possible and less stressful,” Pfieffer said. “Activities with the horse help therapists and counselors gently demonstrate new ways to empower a patient when they might feel helpless, whether it is confronting illness, learning how to self-manage diabetes care, or transitioning out of the hospital back to school or to college, jobs or living independently. We see magical moments happen all the time.”
Pfieffer said the program is growing fast, with a waiting list already booked through May 2026. Both Nemours and NFSSE welcome donations to support the therapy horse program expenses, and invite readers to visit their websites for ways to donate or volunteer.
Nemours Children’s Health is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit, multistate pediatric health systems, with two free-standing hospitals and a network of more than 70 primary and specialty care practices. Nemours seeks to transform children’s health through a holistic model that delivers innovative, safe and high-quality care while addressing whole-child health. It provides hospital- and clinic-based specialty primary care, prevention and health information services, as well as research and medical education programs, to improve the lives of children and their families. The Nemours Foundation was established in 1936 by the late philanthropist Alfred I. duPont through his will, and it continues to oversee and fund Nemours Children’s Health.
As part of its community educational outreach, Nemours produces the award-winning podcast “Well Beyond Medicine,” which discusses pediatric medicine. It also maintains the world’s most visited website, NemoursKidsHealth.org, which provides physician-reviewed information on the health, behavior and development of children from birth to adulthood.
NFSSE, a nonprofit educational organization, was founded with the mission of fostering each student’s unique abilities and revealing their highest potential within an engaged community. It serves students with intellectual and developmental differences from ages six to 22 and also offers a postgraduate program for young adults ages 22 to 40. NFSSE is fully accredited by the Florida Council of Independent Schools.
Nemours Children’s Health and NFSSE gratefully thank the Rotary Club of East Arlington and its leadership and members for the generous donation of a new horse trailer to safely and comfortably transport the miniature therapy horses from the Delores Barr Weaver Therapeutic Equestrian Center at NFSSE to the Nemours campus. The donation of the new trailer was a critical need that made the new equine therapy partnership possible and aptly demonstrates the Rotary Club motto: “Unite for Good.”
