Aiken County Public Library and LEARN Aiken partner to promote literacy with miniature rescue horses (2024)

Miniature horses and children came together recently for an event to encourage summer reading.

The LEARN Aiken Foundation brought its Horse Powered Reading Program to the Aiken County Public Library on June 27. LEARN – which stands for Learning with Equine Assisted Resources Nonprofit – promotes hands-on learning through interaction with animals.

In the library parking lot, students from 5K to fifth grade enjoyed educational games and a chance to meet LEARN’s two miniature horses, Mama Blossom and Baby Apple.

Both horses were acquired fromEquine Rescue Aiken.

LEARN Instructor and President Angela Ziel said that all of LEARN’s horses are rescue animals.

“We’re giving them a home,” she said. “They love working with the kids. So it’s just a mutual benefit. Benefits the horses, benefits the children as well.”

The event’s activities were a fusion of horse-themed games and literacy, including decorating wooden horse shoes, sifting through sand to find letters in order to spell horse breeds, labeling the different parts of a horse, and playing “Pooper Scooper,” a game that involved sorting letters using a rake.

According to the Library’s Youth Services Librarian Marie Davidsohn, this is the event’s second summer at the library.

Davidsohn talked about the impact that literacy-related events have on students and families during the summer months.

“Now that we’re in summer, a lot of kids are not reading and they’re lacking on some of those skills," she said. "So this is a great way to pick up on it.”

Davidsohn said that each child would be able to leave the event with a free book: “It’s also creating home libraries, which can often be a barrier for children too."

She also noted that the event was fitting for Aiken, where horses play a big part in the local culture.

“We’re a big horse community, so it ties in that aspect of it,” she said.

Ziel, who has been teaching for 26 years, said that LEARN Aiken is a response to children who struggle sitting still and listening in a traditional classroom.

“We’ve created this foundation and this program where kids are outside, they’re unplugged, they’re working on literacy skills, math skills, social skills, whatever they need,” she said. “And they get all the benefits of playing outside with horses. We play all kinds of games and activities but they’re still learning their educational skills while we’re doing that.”

This Horse Powered Reading event was funded by a grant from the Gifting Tree Foundation.