[NAGDU] guide horse questions

[joshknnd1982 at gmail.com]

hi,

 

My name is Josh Kennedy and I am new to this list. I joined because I did
not know where else to ask the following question. I recently discovered my
enthusiasm for horses of all types, but especially class A miniature horses.
I then began to look into guide horses since I get along with horses so
well. I had bad experiences with dogs as a child and off and on throughout
my life. I found out the owners specifically Janet Burleson, of the guide
horse foundation stopped training guide horses because one of them was in a
bad accident and they could no longer train them. And then I read about the
Panda Project on the www.theclickercenter.com
<http://www.theclickercenter.com>  website. I was able to get in touch with
Ann Edie who still has her guide horse, Panda. She put me in touch with Mona
who has a guide horse named Kalley. Mona had to save money to get her guide
horse and also pay a trainer. But guide dog users can get sponsored, if I am
correct, to just go to guide dog schools and get a guide dog if they qualify
for one. Also by using chatGPT and other modern AI, and spending many hours
at the farm where my son works, spending many hours with the miniature horse
they have there, I have learned a lot about class A 26 to 32 inch tall
miniature horses over the past few months. Is there funding or financial aid
available for people like me and others who would like to have class A mini
horses as their guide animal of choice? And for what its worth, if
circumstances had been different, I think the female mini horse, the mare,
at the farm where my son works, would have made an excellent guide horse.
She seems to have the temprament and intelligence for the job. She is
already 14 or so years old and is owned by someone else. That is ok though.
Also I don't know if Alexandra Kurland still trains horses anymore as I
cannot get in touch with her. Nor have I been able to get in touch with Dan
Shaw, who has a guide horse named Cuddles. that is according to the now
defunct guide-horse.org website. Mona suggested I may have to train my own
guide horse. I may have to just save the money, buy it and use Alexandra
Kurland's amazon kindle modern horse training books in order to train my
own, possibly. She uses the clicker training method and that is also how she
trained Ann Edie's guide horse, Panda. So if anyone knows anything, or if
the guide dog schools are willing to start training mini horses along with
guide dogs, please let me know. you can email me at joshknnd1982 at gmail.com
<mailto:joshknnd1982 at gmail.com>  in order to discuss this off list if you
wish. 

It would be great if I could attend the seeing eye, or leader dogs, along
with the school partnering with a local farm, in order to more easily and
more affordably get a guide horse. 

 

thanks,

 

Josh Kennedy