There's excitement at the clip clop sound of star-attraction Romeo as he arrives at this non-profit adult day care program for older adults with physical or cognitive impairment in Ventura County.
This miniature horse is 3 feet tall, with white hair, and fluffy mane and has an A-List handler attached to his red rope bridle - actress Daryl Hannah!
"We adopted Romeo when he was orphaned. He just has such a gentle, loving personality that we decided to start doing therapy work with him because people light up when they see him," Hannah told KCLU.
The star of Wall Street, Splash and Kill Bill crouches down to introduce miniature therapy horse Romeo to each participant.
"When it comes places like senior concerns, he gets very calm. He loves greeting people, he gets very relaxed and you can see the energy is mutual. You know that people give them love and they give the love back. It's a very reciprocal exchange of love and joy, you know, and it's really such a beautiful thing," said Hannah.
Martha Shapiro, the Director of Programs at Senior Concerns in Thousand Oaks, says the horses bring joy to those who come here for their programs.
"A lot of times, people with cognitive impairment can become really isolated. And so they've spent a lot of time at home maybe watching TV, and then they come to a program like this and they have something that's just for them. And frankly, anything that involves socialization and conversation and reminiscing is therapeutic for older adults and especially for people with dementia," said Shapiro.
Romeo and her second horse Ziggy—which is closer in size to a large dog—calmly enjoy being petted by the participants here.
And while Hannah may be no stranger to being the center of attention herself, here at Senior Concerns, all eyes—and hands—are on the mane attraction.
"I love it because, you know, I love acting in movies, and part of my impetus for doing that was so I could disappear into a role, but I didn't really calculate the part of people recognizing you," Hannah told KCLU. "That is super uncomfortable for me, always has been, and part of the reason I don't really enjoy doing it anymore, you know? And so for me, Romeo and Ziggy are like the perfect beard! I can go anywhere with them and people will be so excited to see them and they don't even notice me. It's the best. It's just fantastic. So I can still do this work and bring joy to people. But I don't have to be uncomfortable in that way. And they love it. They love the attention."
