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Since 2005, Sanofi S.A., a French multinational pharmaceutical company based in Paris, has provided donations of funding and equipment to Cheval Dire, a French NGO working in children’s health and the rehabilitation of mistreated animals.

Cheval Dire brings together disabled children and ill-treated horses for sessions of a new kind of therapy. The horses learn to put their confidence in humans through being treated properly and these slightly unusual children discover the benefits of horse-based therapy.

This new approach uses horses for psychological as much as for physical reeducation. Horses offer many benefits for children with physical disabilities. Riding can tone up muscles, relax tendons and strengthen bones, while improving concentration, oxygenation, and balance. They also enable previously suppressed emotions to emerge, and encourage children to reach new goals.

Support from Sanofi-Aventis has enabled the organisation to acquire, for example, a lifting device to simplify the process of putting riders in their saddles.