WATCH: Special Guest Appearance by Four-Legged Visitor to Peck Slip School

Peck Slip School kindergartners learn about the work of Hamlet, an American Miniature Horse that provides emotional comfort to children and others who have experienced trauma or are undergoing treatment for a serious illness. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

“Hi everybody, this is Hamlet,” Megan Ward announced as she led a horse—a small horse, but a real full-grown one all the same—into a Peck Slip School classroom filled with kindergartners.

“Hi Hamlet,” came a soft chorus from the children who had been instructed by teacher Thea Sachs to greet the visitor in calm voices.

“Did you guys ever have a horse in your school before? What do you think?”

“Great!” some kids said.

“I want him in my house,” another announced.

Hamlet, it seems, makes friends wherever he goes. That’s his job. The nearly five-year-old American Miniature Horse and his brother, Honor, 1, are the therapy horses of Mini Horse Heroes, a foundation dedicated to the memory of Port Authority Police Officer Kenneth Tietjan, who was killed in the attacks of Sept. 11.

Tietjan’s sister, Laurie Cabot, along with Trish Wosleger and Ward, brought Hamlet to the school on June 14 as the latest addition to the kindergartners’ study of animals as both pets and helpers. But more often Hamlet is comforting children who have experienced devastating loss or trauma. (According to the organization, Hamlet and Honor are the first horses to work inside New York City hospitals.)

In the Peck Slip classroom, there were questions about Hamlet’s sleeping habits, his play time, and whether he takes baths. And then there was this one: “Do horses have feelings like people do?“ a girl asked.

“Nobody really knows but I’ll tell you what I believe from what I’ve seen,” Ward began. “I think horses have even deeper feelings than people do because sometimes Hamlet and Honor have been with children and they know right away who is the sick child. One of them will go to that child and put his head on their chest without me even asking.”

“So horses,” she added, as Hamlet stood facing the kindergartners and looking very much at home, “have a lot of sense.”