Greece’s only miniature therapy horses bring joy to many, but their charity is struggling

Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, a smile spreads across the little girl's face. Blinking behind her glasses, she inches her wheelchair forward and gently reaches out to stroke the tiny gray horse.

Soon, 9-year-old Josifina Topa Mazuch is beaming as she leads Ivi, a specially trained miniature horse, standing no taller than her pink wheelchair, through the school hallway.

"I really want them to come again," Josifina said of Ivi and a second miniature horse, Calypso, after a November morning visit to her Athens primary school for children with special needs. "They made me feel really happy."

Calypso, left, and Ivi, miniature horses used for therapy programs, enter an elevator at a school for disabled children, in Athens, Nov 21. [Thanassis Stavrakis/AP]

Ivi and Calypso are two of eight miniature horses from Gentle Carousel Greece, a Greek offshoot of...