This horse drinks a Good People beer a day

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, the saying goes. Beer? Now, that's another story.

Take Mac, a horse at King's Home in Chelsea. Mac drinks a Good People Brewing beer a day. King's home provides services to women and children who have been abused or who are at risk of being abused, one of those services being equine therapy.

Mac was given to King's Home, but he had some health problems like Cushings disease. A symptom of his ailment is Anhidrosis, or losing the ability to sweat. His vet told the staff at King's Home to try giving him a beer each day, in addition to other therapies like supplements. The staff gave it a try, and his condition improved. He's been drinking a beer a day for almost a year.

"Beer has ingredients that can open the pores and help them sweat," King's Home Development Director John Tidwell said.

There's no alcohol allowed on King's Home's campus. Mac's beer is locked in a cabinet. Mac's in his early 20s, but they're not sure exactly how old. That's around middle aged for a horse, and Tidwell jokes that he's started drinking in his midlife crisis.

Tidwell knew Good People's Cofounder Jason Malone, so he called him and asked if he'd essentially sponsor Mac's medicine by donating the beer. Malone happily agreed.

"Apparently, he's a big fan of IPAs. He'll be our biggest, literally and figuratively, IPA fan," Malone said.

Mac's health has improved immensely and he's working with kids again. He visited Good People's Brewery before it opened on Thursday.

"God has just really provided for us in an incredible way," Tidwell said.