[nagdu] Article about Guide Horses

Sheila Leigland sheila.leigland at gmail.com
Mon Jun 22 19:48:59 UTC 2015


ann very well put. I respect your right to choose the mobility aid of 
your choice. I was given the choice to choose mine so I expect the same 
for you.

On 6/22/2015 1:28 PM, Ann Edie via nagdu wrote:
> Hi, All,
>
> This article is very old (perhaps 2001?), and I believe that the statements
> made in it are no longer consistent with NAGDU's policy or attitude toward
> persons who choose to work with miniature horses as their mobility method.
> Although NAGDU officers at the time took issue with the publicity put out by
> this particular organization--the Guide Horse Foundation--and the NFB in
> general was skeptical of the idea of miniature horse guides, present NAGDU
> officers and members have been open to learning from the experience of
> actual guide horse users, and as always, when facts replace misconceptions
> and prejudices, the picture changes from one of ridicule to one of mutual
> respect and understanding.
>
> I am a person who has been blind all my life. I have been a cane user, have
> worked with three guide dogs, and for the past 12 years, have been partnered
> with my miniature horse guide, Panda. I believe in and try to live every day
> the philosophy of the NFB and NAGDU. I know that the cane and the dog guide
> are both effective and completely satisfactory mobility tools for many blind
> people. I do not look to a miniature horse to give me my life or my freedom.
> I know that my independence and my achievement of my life goals depend on my
> own development of skills and confidence to go out and use them. I have
> chosen to partner with a miniature horse guide because of the advantages
> miniature horses possess as working guide animals for me personally. I am
> not out to convince anyone else to switch from a dog guide to a miniature
> horse guide. And I do not think many people will choose this option in the
> foreseeable future. But I hope that dog guide users, as well as other
> members of the public, will allow us, the small contingent of miniature
> horse guide partners, the freedom to choose and use the mobility option
> which best suits our needs and preferences.
>
> NAGDU has welcomed me as a member of the organization and as a participant
> on these e-mail lists, and I thank the organization for giving me the
> opportunity over the past 15 years, to answer the questions of the guide dog
> community about the differences and similarities between miniature horses
> and dogs as mobility aids for blind people. During the most recent
> discussions leading to changes in the regulations implementing the ADA,
> NAGDU lent its support to including miniature horses in the definition of
> service animals for purposes of access to public accommodations under the
> act. And miniature horse guides were, in fact, expressly included as
> qualifying as service animals for purposes of the Act--the only species
> other than dogs to be given this designation--with only the proviso that a
> business manager can ask questions to determine whether the miniature horse
> is housetrained and under the control of its handler, (which, after all, is
> required of service dogs as well, isn't it?), and can determine whether the
> size or weight of the animal can be accommodated within the business.
>
> I am grateful to all those who ask sincere questions about miniature horses
> as guides for blind people, and I and other guide horse handlers are willing
> to answer these questions based on our personal experience. And to those few
> who would dismiss a novel idea out-of-hand without seeking information upon
> which to base their opinion, I only ask that you live and let live.
>
> Thank you,
> Ann
> e-mail: annedie at nycap.rr.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lisa via nagdu
> Sent: Monday, June 22, 2015 6:04 AM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Cc: Lisa
> Subject: [nagdu] Article about Guide Horses
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> There's an article about guide horses in the US that I found on the NFB
> website a few months ago. I copied the article here, the link to the website
> is below. I found it pretty interesting, especially the paragraph about how
> limited your travelling options are when you're the owner of a guide horse.
>
>
> The Guide Horse Foundation: Joke or Jeopardy?
> by Eugenia Firth
>
>  From the Editor: If you read newspapers, watch television, or use email, you
> have probably heard something recently about the Guide Horse Foundation and
> its plans to train miniature horses as guides for blind people. I frankly
> laughed the first time I read one of these articles. Then I read another
> piece describing a blind man in Maine who preferred to make a spectacle of
> himself bumping into things and people rather than admit that he was blind.
> He expects all this to change as soon as he is given a guide horse. He
> believes that he will no longer mind going places once he has his trusty
> little horse to show him the way.
>
>       He is not alone, of course, in hoping that something outside himself
> will accomplish the hard work of coming to terms with vision loss. We who
> have walked this path know that disappointment and disillusionment lie ahead
> of this man and every blind person who hopes to short-circuit the
> adjustment-to-blindness process.
>
>       Now the leaders of the National Association of Guide Dog Users, our
> guide dog division, have discovered how much more disturbing and even
> dangerous the guide horse plan is than we had first thought. Eugenia Firth
> is the Association's Secretary. In the following article she describes what
> she and NAGDU President Suzanne Whalen have discovered about the Guide Horse
> Foundation. This is what she says:
>
>       Within the past year I have become aware of an organization called the
> Guide Horse Foundation, located in Kitrell, North Carolina. It is the
> brainchild of Don and Janet Burleson. Mr. and Mrs. Burleson propose to train
> miniature horses to serve as guides for the blind. Indeed the organization
> has already advertised that it plans to serve two students, Cheryl King of
> Washington state and Dan Shaw of Elsworth, Maine. Mrs. Burleson is a retired
> horse trainer, and Mr. Burleson designs Web sites.
>
>       As far as I have been able to determine from my reading of several news
> stories about them, neither Mr. nor Mrs. Burleson has any knowledge of blind
> people and our needs. Furthermore Mrs. Burleson knows nothing about training
> guide animals for the blind. Suzanne Whalen, the president of the National
> Association of Guide Dog Users (NAGDU), discovered this in an extensive
> telephone interview with Mrs. Burleson. This interview demonstrated that the
> Burlesons have made no real effort to learn proper training methods for
> guides as they have evolved during the past seventy-two years, first by The
> Seeing Eye and then by other guide dog schools. Also in her conversation
> Suzanne discovered many disadvantages of miniature horses as guides,
> disadvantages which my reading on the subject has corroborated.
>
>       I first became interested in the Guide Horse Foundation through our
> division listserv, in which interested contributors discuss issues affecting
> guide dogs and their owners. When I first heard about miniature horses as
> guides, I had the same reaction as many other blind people: I laughed the
> concept off as a joke. However, I began to hear more about this idea, so I
> decided to start researching the topic for myself.
>
>       The chief problems with the Guide Horse Foundation spring from the fact
> that, even if the horses can learn guide work, they are inflexible and
> ill-adapted to dealing with changing situations. By Mrs. Burleson's own
> admissions Guide Horse Foundation personnel know nothing about training
> guides for the blind and have made very little effort to ensure that the
> horses will be safe guides before accepting applicants. In addition, they do
> not adhere to the procedures normally followed in the guide dog industry to
> ensure that blind people receive the best matches possible.
>
>       Mrs. Burleson told Suzanne that guide horses are not meant to replace
> guide dogs but only to offer another choice to blind horse lovers. She went
> on to say that the Guide Horse Foundation is experimenting at this stage to
> see whether miniature horses can work as safe, effective guides. I wonder if
> Mr. Shaw and Ms. King realize that they are the subjects of an experiment?
> Are they prepared to risk their lives for an uncertain outcome? What
> compelling reason could any blind person have for risking life and limb to
> obtain questionable mobility in these days when the methodologies for
> teaching cane travel and guide dog travel are well established?
>
>       The only blind people the Guide Horse Foundation proposes to serve who
> might become that desperate are blind wheelchair users. Mrs. Burleson has
> chosen Nevada, one of her larger guide horses, to be the first guide horse
> to pull a wheelchair while guiding a blind person. Southeastern Guide Dogs,
> Inc., the only guide dog school currently teaching wheelchair guiding, has
> refined its program over the past several years. However, they started, like
> every other guide dog school, working with walking blind people. Mrs.
> Burleson, on the other hand, hasn't yet proven guide horses either safe or
> effective guides for walking blind people, much less for those who use
> wheelchairs.
>
>       Last, but certainly not least, the media have presented blind people in
> a poor light when describing the services of the Foundation. Although an
> organization cannot control what the news media finally choose to say, its
> attitude as expressed to the reporter does convey its philosophy and its
> view of the people it serves. An organization with a positive philosophy of
> blindness would try, whenever interviewed by the media, to present a
> positive attitude about blind people and their abilities. This, as far as I
> can see, has not been the case with the Guide Horse Foundation. The news
> media have focused solely on the cuteness of the horses--in one story a
> blind woman paraded back and forth across a street with a miniature horse
> decked out in children's tennis shoes. Only once, and this was a story
> televised by the Discovery Channel, have I heard a reporter mention the
> problems. He said: "There's a whole stable full of problems." I wonder if
> this man realized just how right he was and what an unbelievable
> understatement he had made. The first guide dog school, The Seeing Eye, did
> not seek media attention until Morris Frank, the first person to use a
> Seeing Eye dog, had proven to himself and to his instructors that guide dogs
> were safe, effective mobility aids. Yet Guide Horse Foundation
> representatives, even though they claim their program is experimental, have
> been featured on "Good Morning America," CNN, Fox News, and in the
> Washington Post, the New York Times, USA Today, People magazine, and the
> Atlanta Journal Constitution, to name only a few.
>
>       The leaders of the National Association of Guide Dog Users believe that
> our community is facing a very real threat which will require collective
> action of the sort for which the NFB is famous. No existing legislation that
> I know of provides protection from irresponsible guide-animal training. Pigs
> are supposed to be smarter than dogs. One day soon we may find pot-bellied
> pigs being ballyhooed as ideal guides--the Philadelphia Inquirer recently
> carried a story about two women who talked their way onto a US Airways
> flight with a 300-pound so-called therapy pig. Unless we draw the line and
> insist on common sense, the variety of ill-conceived notions and poorly
> trained animals imposed on blind people will be limited only by the
> imagination and creativity of well-meaning enthusiasts.
>
>       Let us examine our immediate threat more closely. Unlike guide dogs and
> of course canes, guide horses limit their owners to rural areas and the
> suburbs. True, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Mr. Shaw plans
> to bring Cuddles, his guide horse, to Atlanta and ride the Metro during his
> training. However, whether he likes it or not, if he wants to keep a guide
> horse, he will need to return fairly soon to a rural area so that Cuddles
> can graze and run around outside. Guide horses can live for thirty years,
> which is one of their advantages as guides; but, according to Mrs. Burleson,
> the owner must stay in the rural environment during that time to benefit
> from that long life span.
>
>       Suzanne discovered some other disturbing limitations to miniature
> horses. If you have a guide horse, forget about riding in taxis, Greyhound
> buses, or any other vehicle that requires your guide to curl up; horses
> cannot curl up. While they can, according to Mrs. Burleson, be taught to lie
> under tables, they prefer to stand. Even if they do lie down, they must
> spread themselves out. The complications arising from this fact are obvious
> to any experienced, independent blind traveler. However, inexperienced
> travelers, such as the newly blind and those happy to remain dependent upon
> sighted friends and family members who drive roomier vehicles, may be
> persuaded that thirty years of guide service is precious enough to sacrifice
> all possibility of independence. What we are talking about, however, is
> thirty years of prison-the prison of dependency and limitation.
>
>       Mrs. Burleson mentioned to Suzanne some additional limitations. For
> example, guide horses cannot hold their waste products as long as guide dogs
> can. According to the Guide Horse Foundation Web site, excursions longer
> than five hours are not recommended without precautions, presumably those
> diapers the police horses wear. Guide dogs are somewhat flexible in this
> department. Responsible guide dog owners can tailor relief schedules to
> their own work schedules. However, if you have a guide horse, your horse's
> schedule will determine yours.
>
>       At first, when Suzanne questioned Mrs. Burleson about graduates being
> required to remain in a rural or suburban setting in order to benefit from a
> guide horse, her first response was to say that of course blind people
> wouldn't move. Suzanne pointed out that blind people, like everybody else,
> refuse to stay where they are put. Mrs. Burleson's response was that, if the
> blind person had to move to a city, he or she could just give up the guide
> horse. There goes the longevity advantage. Unless you plan never to accept
> urban job offers, never to marry Mr. or Ms. Right and move to the big city,
> never to accept that wonderful scholarship you were just offered, you can't
> count on the advertised advantage of a thirty-year guide horse.
>
>       Mrs. Burleson has also failed to consider the emotional pain of giving
> up a horse. In fact, I fear that some people who have come to love their
> guide horses will refuse to give them up, instead subjecting the animals to
> a living situation for which they are unsuited. If that happens, even one
> problem guide horse could cause access problems for guide dog owners.
>
>       During the telephone interview Suzanne asked Mrs. Burleson to clarify
> what she planned to teach guide horses. She could not do this clearly. The
> Foundation's Web site gives a very good description of this process, but
> Mrs. Burleson, the trainer, was unable to outline her curriculum. At one
> point the subject of assessment came up. The Guide Horse Foundation plans to
> bring Mr. Shaw to the school for a week of assessment, yet Mrs. Burleson
> could not tell Suzanne what they planned to assess or how they were going to
> accomplish it. An established guide dog school can tell you what skills a
> blind person must possess to work successfully with a guide dog, and they
> can explain how they evaluate a person's performance with a guide dog. Mrs.
> Burleson had no idea what she was going to do with Mr. Shaw. Suzanne was
> speaking to her toward the end of January, and Shaw is scheduled to arrive
> some time in March. As a guide dog user with thirty-one years of experience,
> I would be unwilling to work with a guide dog instructor who exhibited so
> little knowledge of methodology or techniques.
>
>       Suzanne and Mrs. Burleson discussed established procedures in guide dog
> schools for choosing which dog a person is to receive. Cuddles, one of the
> horses, has already been chosen for Mr. Shaw, even though Mrs. Burleson has
> never evaluated him or formed a clear idea of what she is looking for in a
> solid working team. In a guide dog school an instructor takes the student on
> a walk to determine speed, pull, and the student's balance while walking.
> Based on conversations with the student and other assessments, the
> instructor matches the personality of the guide dog with the personality of
> the person.
>
>       No responsible guide dog school would choose a dog or make a definite
> match with as little information as Mrs. Burleson has used to choose Cuddles
> for Mr. Shaw. When Suzanne pointed out this problem, Mrs. Burleson admitted
> that she knew nothing about how guide dog schools pick dogs for blind people
> even though this process is one of the most critical aspects of training. In
> fact, Mrs. Burleson said that Cuddles would work for anyone but that, if
> this relationship didn't work out, she had nine other horses from which to
> pick.
>
>       All of this adds up to one thing: trouble for any blind person unwise
> or unfortunate enough to choose this method of mobility. We in the
> Federation could just sit back and let this school fail naturally, which is
> likely to happen eventually. However, before the school fails, blind people
> will be at risk, and they will make exhibitions of themselves with
> ridiculous-looking guides wearing tennis shoes. These are not the booties we
> guide dog users sometimes use for our dogs' protection against hot concrete
> or snowy sidewalks; these are cutdown children's tennis shoes on the feet of
> tiny horses.
>
>       In addition, because of the relief problems, guide dog users may well
> face increased discrimination in restaurants, apartment buildings, and other
> public accommodations. The Board of the National Association of Guide Dog
> Users has voted to bring a resolution opposing the Guide Horse Foundation
> and its activities to our convention this summer for consideration. My
> fellow Federationists, we need the support of every cane and guide dog user.
> All of us have an interest in blind people being presented in a positive
> way. We guide dog users must protect our rights or risk losing them.
>
> Source:
> https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm01/bm0104/bm010404.htm
>
>
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