A Little Horse With A Lot Of Heart
Story by Megan Bennett, VMBS Marketing & Communications
Equine surgeons at the Texas A&M Large Animal Teaching Hospital heal a mini therapy horse’s broken leg.
In two north Texas nursing homes, Jeffery, the miniature horse, is well known for his seemingly magical ability to “make smiles.”
“As soon as the residents see him, there is not a frown in the room,” said Jeffery’s owner, Stefanie Chambers. “Even those who aren’t motivated to smile by anything else smile the minute they meet Jeffery.”
Standing at only 2 feet 5 inches tall, Jeffery has no trouble navigating the rooms and halls of the nursing homes he visits. He is especially skilled at giving hugs and kisses, or “sugars.”
“He always seems to know who needs him the most,” Chambers said. “He’s drawn to the saddest people so that he can give them hugs.”
When Jeffery’s leg was broken in an unfortunate accident, it was his turn to rely on those around him for love and support as he embarked on a long healing journey.
With help from his veterinary surgical team at the Texas A&M Large Animal Teaching Hospital (LATH), Jeffery is now back to running, playing, and making smiles wherever he goes.
Finding A Calling
Chambers knew that Jeffery was special from the first time she brought him home in December 2017.
“It didn’t matter what he was doing, if you hugged him, he stopped what he was doing to nuzzle and hug you back,” she said. “I thought right away that he would make a good therapy horse.”
Jeffery’s first opportunity to shine came about thanks to a conversation Chambers had with a customer of the auto body shop she owns with her husband in Ben Wheeler, Texas.
“I was telling her about my pony that likes to be hugged and she said I should bring him to the nursing home she runs,” Chambers recalled. “I told her that he’s not trained and I didn’t know how he would behave, but soon after she called and said she had me signed up to bring Jeffery that Saturday.
“When I took him to the nursing home, he just came to life,” she said. “He acted like he lived there, walking up and down the hallways.”
Jeffery soon became a fixture at that facility and another, visiting every month. He would often come dressed appropriately for the season, whether that be as a penguin for winter, an elf for the holidays, or a Mad Hatter for Halloween.
“One time, the nursing home staff asked if I would go to this one room first because the lady was on hospice and her whole family was there with her,” Chambers said. “We had Jeffery dressed up as a cowboy that day. I took him to her room and told him to give that lady sugars, even though I’d never told him to do that before. He walked right up and put his lips on her face and gave her sugars. From that point on, I could tell him to give sugars and he would do it.
“Another time, a lady came up to us in the hallway to ask if we could take Jeffery into her husband’s room. I could tell he had been a long-time resident by how much stuff was in his room; there was barely enough room for Jeffery and no room for me,” she said. “I told Jeffery to go give that man sugars, and he walked right over to the bed and gave that man sugars without me even being there with him.”
During all his visits, it was clear that Jeffery provided much joy and comfort to the nursing home residents he spent time with.
“He’s just a joy and the cutest little thing,” Chambers said. “All my friends would fight over who was going to go with me and Jeffery because we would all leave there in tears — happy tears — every single time we went.”
An Unfortunate Accident
On Aug. 11, 2020, Chambers arrived home from work to discover that Jeffery had broken his right front leg.
“I watched the accident on my security camera,” Chambers said. “I had him in a pasture with two big mares. Jeffery was running up to one of them and biting her and then running off, over and over again. On the fourth time, she spun around to chase him. I don’t know what happened, but he went end over end; she tried to stop but couldn’t, so she trampled him.”
Chambers’ local veterinarian was not optimistic about Jeffery’s chances but agreed to try to heal his leg.
“He first told me that there was nothing he could do, but I said that this was not your normal horse and I was not accepting that answer,” Chambers said. “He ended up setting Jeffery’s leg in a cast for 16 weeks.”
Unfortunately, without having had surgical intervention, Jeffery’s broken leg healed incorrectly. By the following May, it became apparent to Chambers that Jeffery needed more help in order to return to his previous level of activity, so she made an appointment to have him seen by the LATH’s equine orthopedic specialists.
“His leg had healed but in a bad position,” said Dr. Kati Glass, a clinical associate professor in the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences’ (VMBS) Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences (VLCS). “He had both an angular deformity and a rotational deformity, causing the lower leg to be twisted where the break had happened.”
Fixing Jeffery’s leg would involve a long, complicated surgery, but Chambers was determined to do whatever it took to return Jeffery to his former quality of life. Fortunately, after years of supporting others, Jeffery had many people ready to support him when it was his time in need.
“One of my friends plays guitar with a band and would put a tip jar out every time she went to play,” Chambers said. “It had Jeffery’s picture and the story about how we needed to fix his little leg. The whole community got together and supported me.”
Setting Things Right
Jeffery’s leg was not a quick fix; Glass, VLCS professor Dr. Jeffrey Watkins, and the LATH’s surgical team spent more than six hours in the operating room on June 30, 2021, working to correct the improperly healed fracture.
They performed a corrective osteotomy, which involves rebreaking and cutting out a piece of bone to realign a limb, and a fetlock arthrodesis, which involves using metal plates and screws to fuse the fetlock, or ankle joint.
“It was a complex procedure. We are fortunate to have the team and instrumentation here to have allowed us to gain experience with this type of surgery,” Glass said. “It’s quite the undertaking to essentially rebreak a leg that’s healed or grown incorrectly, make additional cuts in the bone to correct the alignment, and apply plates and screws for stabilization while it heals in the new position.”
Unlike people, horses must be able to stand and walk immediately after surgery, requiring implants that provide stability for comfortable weight bearing and walking while the bones are healing. Jeffery’s relatively small size, at just under 200 pounds, was beneficial for his post-operative healing process.
“Jeffery’s story demonstrates why surgery is important in the treatment of broken legs in horses,” Glass said. “Surgical fracture stabilization in an appropriate position reduces the likelihood of malunion, or healing in poor alignment. Without surgery, the 1000-pound size of the average horse almost certainly leads to life-ending complications, pain, and suffering. Thankfully, Jeffery’s small stature gave us a second chance at helping him.”
After about a month at the LATH, Jeffery was cleared to continue his healing progress at home. He briefly returned to Texas A&M in April 2024 for some corrective hoof trimming, giving his veterinary team the chance to see how well he was doing years later.
“It was wonderful to see Jeffery doing so well,” Glass said. “Because of Mrs. Chambers’ commitment to his care, he has returned to a completely normal life, with an inspiring story to share.”
Back in good health and spirits, the now 13-year-old stallion is enjoying life at home with his family, which includes three foals he sired with Chambers’ Shetland pony. The youngest, Henry, is only 3 months old.
Chambers hopes to resume Jeffery’s nursing home outings soon, especially after receiving messages from the residents about how they miss their little smile-maker.
“Jeffery is an inspiration to everyone he meets,” Chambers said. “He’s such a good boy and he just loves his hugs. Even my husband, who’s not a horse person, tells people all the time, ‘He’s just a cool little guy.’”
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Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of VMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu, 979-862-4216
