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

[ckrugman at sbcglobal.net]

This whole thing seems very quirky to me which is why I posted it.
Chuck
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cindy Handel" <cindy425 at verizon.net>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 6:10 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Miniature guide horse opens door for blind student


> This article never said the student was trained to use the guide horse. It
> talked about the year of training the horse received.  But, I wonder how
> safe this woman is with the horse, if she had no training with it.
>
> Cindy
> ----- 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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