Mary Rose Gullet grew up around horses. She rode them, cared for them, shared them. Then, she and her husband bought a miniature horse for their daughter — a purchase that would change her life.

“Honey was supposed to be that one horse that wouldn’t bite or kick our daughter, and that little, tiny horse changed the course of my life,” Gullet said. “If you had told me eight or nine years ago that I would have miniature horses and no full-sized horses, I would have thought you needed to be committed.”

When she saw the joy Honey brought to the sick and elderly and those struggling with anxiety or depression, she worked on getting her therapy certification for the horses, then went on to attend Saint Leo University, where she received her master’s degree in social work (MSW) to become a mental health professional.

“I can’t begin to tell you the difference this social work degree has made,” she said. “I also was selected for the Academic Excellence Virtual Conference Student Choice Award 2023.”

That also is the year she graduated from Saint Leo, following a stellar few years in her nonprofit business, Honey’s Mini Therapy Adventures, changing the lives of others.

A number of her professors worked in hospitals and were familiar with her program, so she was invited to bring her tiny horses to Saint Leo’s campus to provide stress therapy for the college students. “My professors helped me become a better student, and in turn, a better social worker because they saw what I wanted to do,” Gullet said.

She quickly realized how equine therapy positively affected those struggling with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as those with cancer and others with anxiety. One staff member at Tampa General Hospital told her that after a patient visited with the mini horses, all of her stress and anxiety washed away.

If the tiny horses make positive impacts on someone’s day, all the hard work that goes into the program is worth it, Gullet said.

Today Gullet works part time in the inpatient psychiatric unit at Lakeland Regional Hospital (FL) as a behavioral health case manager while operating Honey’s Mini Therapy Adventures. She travels with the mini horses to more than 30 hospitals, including Lakeland Regional, Tampa General, AdventHealth, UF Health, Gracepoint Behavioral Health, and others, assisting an average of 60 to 80 people per visit.

At larger facilities, the mini therapy horses can visit as many as 500 patients and guests.

Gullet secures sponsorships and grants through strategic partnerships to keep the program running. These funds support visits to pediatric care facilities, including Joshua House and The Kidz Club.

“When I was looking for schools to attend, Saint Leo was the one school I wanted to go to because I had that lens of student life, the values of the school, the work environment. Throughout my experience, I had every ability to make my grad degree what I wanted it to be.”