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Armenia’s Horse Whisperers: Healing at the Centaur Hippotherapy Center
Special for the Armenian Weekly
While I had heard about the Centaur Hippotherapy Center in Armenia about two years ago, I only visited the location late last year, after a volunteer invited me to join him the next time he went. I knew that hippotherapy focused on the use of therapy with the aid of horses, and was very surprised that it somehow existed in Armenia, where animals can have bad reputations. I was excited to see it for myself. When I learned that the center also had a dog shelter,
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A wonderful piece. How can one donate?
Thank you for the article, Lena! Thank you for your interest, Arlene! We have an organization bank account you can donate on. If you PM me on FB (Hasmik Centaur Hovhannisyan) I will send you the requisites.
Beautiful!
PS They have a very nice website for those interested http://centaur.am/
Bravo Hasmik and Anna very good job .We hope horse loving will return
back soon after 1000 years of Ottoman mongol invasions forbidding
horseride to Armenians.
I would like to make a donation…Horse owner myself…need info…Thanx
I read Lena’s article in the Weekly yesterday and decided to take a ride out, with a couple of bags of dog food, to see the place and meet Hasmik and Anna. It was definitely worth the drive out to meet two extremely dedicated individuals.
Lena is correct in that animals are not looked upon humanely in Armenia. Although, that being said, within the past few years you are seeing more dogs and cats being kept as pets, but that’s only in Yerevan. Get out of the city and it’s a whole different story.
From what I saw, these two young women have given up everything and are living a very spartan life in order to help disabled children as well as rescue horses, dogs and cats that would otherwise have been slaughtered.
Unfortunately, Armenia doesn’t have any worthwhile programs for disabled children, whether it be Autism, Cerebral Palsey, Downs Syndrome or especially advanced stage cancer patients (but this is for another discussion). Hasmik and Anna are trying their best to at least help the children, with the limited means that they have.
Believe it or not, they have to spend more time with the parents teaching and educating them as to how to help their children. The lack of education and understanding is remarkable and that is not with only the poor. Whether poor or well educated and wealthy, that is something that they try to conceal. “Amot eh.”
You can’t see it from the picture in the article, but on the very left, which you can’t see, is the kitchen. The kitchen has a small sink and a small counter to work on. They have no stove to cook on, they have a small portable propane hotpot cooking utensil that holds one pot (I tried to attach a picture, but couldn’t). That one room you see in the above picture is basically where they live. There’s not much more.
Once you go through the village of Ushi, the road to get to their place is unpaved and full of ruts. Although they didn’t complain, I can’t imagine what they do about getting in and out in the winter (Armenia doesn’t do any snow removal to speak of).
I plan go get to know Hasmik and Anna better and help as much as I can, but what I can do is not enough. I am asking for your help as well.
Go to their website: http://centaur.am and make a donation. The amount is irrelevant, they could use and will be thankful for whatever you can give them.