'So cool:' Horses pay window-by-window visit to residents of senior community

MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- The Creekside Village senior community is used to having visitors, but the visitors don't usually eat the grass.

Three horses -- along with their handlers -- went window-to-window introducing themselves and talking to residents of the facility where residents have been cooped up for weeks on end due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Anything unique that we can go out of our way and do I think really, really just boosts, you know, how they're feeling inside during this time," said Meghan Stearly with Creekside Village.

Wess Jackson sits on the board of American Senior Communities and is the head horse handler. He's been traveling across Indiana visiting several of the company's facilities, trying to lift some spirits.

"The relationship with the horses is so cool. They know, they sense when that resident connects. And they'll settle down and they'll lean into the window," Jackson said.

Happy to see something other than the inside of the nursing home, the facility said that while physical health is important, mental health requires the same attention.

American Seniors Communities operates more than 80 facilities in Indiana and their goal is for the horses to make it to each one of them.