Boxes of sugar cubes, bags of apples and chocolate covered carrots wrapped with birthday ribbons and bows covered a table in the Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education on Friday.
Across the room, children gathered around three large cakes while their parents looked through pictures.
The honoree, tied to a nearby railing, dipped his head down and took a mouthful of hay.
Chum, a horse in the Mason-based Children & Horses United in Movement Therapeutic Riding center, celebrated his 30th birthday with 23 years of therapy patients and families.
Chum's owner and occupational therapist Bonnie DePue, threw the party for the horse, whom she calls her "best friend" of 28 years.
"Chum is an integral part of many people's lives," she said. "He's not just any old horse."
In fact, Chum is a really old horse. The average life expectancy of a horse is between 20 and 25 years. Chum's age translates to about 90 for humans, DePue said.
Chum is one of 25 horses at the riding center who helps DePue and other therapists perform therapeutic riding and hippotherapy.
Therapeutic riding uses the movement of the horse to stimulate the rider's muscles, DePue said. The patient can attain a more normal walk through this activity, she said.
Hippotherapy is when the horse is used as a tool in treatment sessions, similar to the role of a therapy ball or water, DePue said. The prefix "hippo" comes from the Greek word for horse.
The benefits of horse therapy are "across the charts," DePue said. It helps patients improve their coordination, motor skills, balance, problem solving, memory and emotional issues she said.
"He's not just doing this because I ask him to," she said. "He prefers people to his four-legged buddies."
DePue said Chum goes out of his way to take care of his riders.
"If I try to give him a day off he mopes," she said. "He knows what days he's supposed to work.
"If I don't take him in I come home and he walks right up to me, turns his butt to me and walks away."
Erin McKay started riding Chum when she was 7 years old and said she clearly remembers her first ride.
"My love of horses started in Mackinac Island," the 18-year old said. "Right then, my parents started to look for a riding stable and that's when I first met Chum.
"He's a big part of my life."
Mason resident Jill Frame first brought her daughter to the riding center six years ago. Her daughter now volunteers as part of the training team.
"Chum has brought so much joy to kids that might not have that type of freedom," she said.
All of the horses receive daily massages and occasional visits from a chiropractor, DePue said.
"We forget that they can have headaches and be sore," she said. "The mechanics are still the same as our bodies."
Despite Chum's old age, DePue said the horse is in good shape and alert.
One of her favorite memories of Chum is when a rider dressed up as a battery and Chum was the energizer bunny complete with full-body pink fur, ears and a white cottontail.
"It was the perfect costume because he just keeps going and going," she said.
