KIND, gentle and very, very sweet — there are so many adjectives that can be applied to the miniature Shetland ponies at Collytown Stud, who have the aaah-factor in spades.

But these tiny equines, standing at a maximum of 34ins high, are also being trained for a new, and very important job — as therapy ponies.

Alyson and Chamaine Blamey have been breeding miniature Shetlands on their Bere Peninsula farm for around 20 years.

Chamaine said: 'I had a riding Shetland and we got a miniature to keep him company, and it went from there.

'We show them led in hand — we go all over the country with them and have been really successful.

'We breed them and export them all over the world — to Dubai, France, Norway, Holland, Belgium — all over the place, to people who want to show them or maybe people who have had big horses all their life but are finding them a bit too much and they down-size.

'They're easy to look after and they are such characters — they're very different from a big horse.'

There are 100 ponies at the Collytown Stud — and now five of them are trained therapy ponies.

The idea of using the miniature Shetlands as therapy ponies formed around a year ago.

Chamaine said: 'We've always allowed groups to come here to visit the stud, and one day we were asked to take a couple down to the local nursing home.

'We took a really quiet mare and foal. While we were there I looked up and saw this elderly lady looking out of the window and I thought 'What a shame, they can't really see them."

'I asked if I could try taking a pony inside, they agreed, so I took her in and she was great, really well behaved, and the response from the residents was absolutely amazing.'

Chamaine said their quiet, kind and gentle little ponies offer therapeutic benefits to people of all ages, particularly for those with poor mobility, co-ordination, the partially sighted or people suffering from depression, anxiety or learning difficulties.

They are also ideal for the elderly, dementia sufferers and people with autism and behavioural issues, providing the opportunity for sensory stimulation through touch, social interaction, a non-judgemental encounter and reminiscing, particularly valuable for the elderly.

Alyson said it was wonderful to see how the ponies could make a difference with people of any age.

'We had a group of students from Duchy College come to see them. They started off all clean and neat and they didn't want to go anywhere near the ponies — within a short time, they ended up on the floor with the foals and went back pretty muddy!

'And with the elderly people, I know they do activities and things in the homes, but to see these tiny ponies walking into their bedroom, it's lovely!

'A lot of elderly people have had contact with ponies, they can relate to them and it gets them talking — even if it's only to the pony. You see them just light up.'

Chamaine said the ponies could elicit quite startling, and emotional, reactions.

'They had one lady in the nursing home, she had been just sitting in her chair, not really knowing what was going on. The pony walked over and put her head on her lap, and it was as if the lady just woke up.

'She started to stroke her and talk to her. The carers said afterwards that they had never seen her speak in the two years she had been there — everyone was in tears, it was all incredibly emotional.'

Chamaine said the ponies realise when they are 'working' and behave impeccably.

'They can be really cheeky, but when they are working in the homes, or with children, they know they have to be on their best behaviour.

'We have had an instance where a boy crawled right underneath the pony, but she was amazing, she never even moved.'

There are three larger therapy ponies at Collytown which Chamaine uses for riding therapy work.

'We have a little girl with cereral palsy comes to us — she was advised by her physio to try riding, because her muscles relax when she's on the pony, and we do exercises as well while she is riding,' said Chamaine.

Spirit and Georgia are a mother and son and they do a lot of work with adults who have learning difficulties. These larger ponies do the outdoor work — but little Thumbelina and tiny, six month old Malachi are the ones that do the 'indoor' visits.

Because they are so tiny, they can be walked into bedrooms, which can be quite small, down narrow corridors and sometimes quite crowded rooms filled with furniture.

They have been trained to walk on different surfaces, go up and down stairs and even in lifts.

'The lift at West View Care Home in Bere Alston is pretty small and it's glass, so it's asking quite a lot of them, but they just get on with it,' said Chamaine.

The ponies have even been trained to stand on a box, to enable bed-ridden patients unable to sit up to be able to see and touch them.

Alyson believes there is a reason why her ponies are so quiet and biddable.

'I think the real difference is we have been at the birth of every single one of them — they've known us from day one, they don't question us, and they do whatever we ask of them.

'There is a real bond between us, and I think this bond makes a huge difference, specially if they are in an alien situation, because they absolutely trust us.'

The pair use natural horsemanship methods, they are never forced in any way to do anything and training is done in a positive, encouraging way — without being fed titbits from hand.

'They won't look for a treat because they've never been given one that way — any treats they do get are given in a bowl off the floor,' said Chamaine.

'We have strict rules, but it just works better.'

When the ponies are working, they wear a therapy pony 'vest', similar to that worn by an assistance dog and, just in case of any unfortunate accidents, little 'diapers' which Chamaine has imported from America.

She said the ponies didn't worry at all about wearing them and they had worked particularly well.

'When I first started taking them inside I didn't have anything like this, and after about 20 minutes, I'd start to panic! The diapers have taken that fear away.

'Luckily they don't wee that often — I think if we thought they were about to, we'd just have to shout for a bucket!'

Chamaine said the ponies seemed to enjoy their therapy work, although she limits their indoor visits to just two a week.

'As good as they are, it's asking a lot to just stand around for an hour at a time, and it's hot inside too. It's different for the ones that work outside.

'But they love all the attention, especially the two that go into the homes. They love being groomed and that's one of the activities the older people do, which they also love.'

Chamaine and Alyson said working with the therapy ponies was 'hugely rewarding' — and also very enjoyable.

Having met and petted these soft little creatures, it's easy to imagine — and easy to see how they can help people when other, more conventional methods of support may not.