[nfb-talk] Miniature guide horse opens door for blind student

[Kenneth Chrane]

Can a Guide Horse fit in an Airplane?
Ken Chrane

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <ckrugman at sbcglobal.net>
To: "NFB Talk" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 2:31 AM
Subject: [nfb-talk] Miniature guide horse opens door for blind student


>
>
> Does anyone have any comments on the use of guide horses as discussed in 
> this article?
> Chuck
>
> Miniature guide horse opens doors for blind student
> Tiny companion helps Muslim woman live independently, attend university
> 11/15/2010
> http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40195834/
>
> For Mona Ramouni, who's blind, using a guide dog was just not possible. 
> From an observant Muslim family, Ramouni's parents objected to having a 
> dog in the house.
>
> For most of her life the 28-year-old got around with the help of her 
> family and friends. But those days are over, and Ramouni has a new 
> companion to help navigate her way: Cali the guide horse.
> The graduate student bought Cali two years ago, and sent her for training 
> to learn to become a guide horse. She paid for the horse, its care and 
> training from her savings work as an editor of Braille books.
>
> Pampered pooches
>
> The Fetch Club boasts a canine restaurant, movie theater, spa, wet bar, 
> photo studio and even a doggie disco.
>
> Guide horse opens doors for blind student
>
> "My whole world and my whole outlook on stuff has changed, because I feel 
> that there are a lot more possibilities," Ramouni told the news service 
> AFP in July 2009, six weeks after Cali arrived. "Before Cali, I didn't 
> feel like I could go places on my own, although theoretically I probably 
> could have."
>
> Guide dogs are believed to have been leading the way for blind people for 
> centuries, while guide horses are a more recent phenomenon. The Guide 
> Horse Foundation has been training miniature horses as companions for the 
> blind for nearly 11 years. There has been such demand for guide horses 
> that the organization, which is run solely by volunteers, has had to 
> suspend the application process.
>
> Mira Oberman / AFP - Getty Images
>
> Graduate student Mona Ramouni, left, and her guide horse Cali wait for 
> class to start with classmate Cheryl Wade and her guide dog.
> It takes about a year to train a guide horse, and the animals have a 
> longer lifespan than guide dogs. Miniature horses can live to be more than 
> 50 years old and weigh around 100 pounds.
>
> "Taking on a horse as a guide is a huge commitment, same as a dog but with 
> more physical needs," said Dolores Arste, Cali's trainer, to the 
> Associated Press last year. "It is not a novelty. It is a real working 
> animal."
>
> Taking care of Cali is definitely different than caring for a guide dog. 
> The diet of a guide horse consists mostly of grass or hay and oats, 
> according to the Guide Horse Foundation, and the animals can graze on the 
> lawn of someone's house.
>
> Since Ramouni and Cali have joined forces, she has been able to move from 
> her native Dearborn, Mich. to Lansing, where she is working toward a 
> master's degree at Michigan State University.
>
> Cali and Ramouni attend classes together, where they are sometimes joined 
> by the guide dog of another student.
>
> "We've had some adventures," Ramouni told the AFP. "If she thinks she can 
> do it, she will. If she thinks she can't or doesn't want to, I swear she's 
> half mule because she'll just stand there."
>
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