[NFBP-Talk] Fwd: guide horse questions

[Josh Kennedy]

I have permission to share the following emails from Holly Fisher. If
anyone here in PA is interested in having a guide horse, contact Holly
Fisher of Fisher's Farrier service in Illinois.


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Holly Fisher <chromedcamo at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, May 15, 2024 at 9:38 PM
Subject: Re: guide horse questions
To: Josh Kennedy <joshknnd1982 at gmail.com>


Hello Josh,
I appreciate you reaching out to me, expressing your interest in miniature
guide horses.

I've had a life long infatuation with all animals, especially horses. I
started taking riding lessons at the age of 7. The more I learned about
horses, the more I wanted to be with them. In my teenage years I trained my
young horse & started competing in horse shows. Then I began training
horses locally. In 2006 I graduated from horseshoeing school & currently I
am still working as a Farrier. I love my job. I still feel like I need to
be more involved. But in what ways?  I have a deep desire to share my love
of horses with like minded individuals.

Around 2018 I stumbled upon the Guide Horse Foundation's website. I was
blown away at the idea of using mini horses as guides.  I instantly knew I
wanted to follow the guide horse foundations lead and I would train guide
horses too.
I researched different types of miniature horses. It didn't take long to
realize bet best choice is Falabella horses. They originated in Argentina.
Falabellas are perfect in every way for guide work. I started looking
online in hope of purchasing a few of these Falabella's to begin clicker
training for service work. I was shocked to find that the price range to
buy a 1 year old, untrained Falabella is between $5,000-$12,000. Yikes! I
was a bit discouraged about buying these mini horses, but I continued
practicing clicker training with my full sized horses.

Fast forward a few years, in March 2024 I was checking out the new foals
for sale on a website named 'Toyland's Falabella International'. Since
2018, I have visited this website many times. During this visit I decided
to sign the websites guestbook. I wrote a few sentences expressing my
wishes to buy a few Falabella horses & clicker train them for guide work.
This is the only time I wrote about my dream online, outside of my small
circle of friends.

So imagine my astonishment & excitement when you reached out to me about a
guide horse.  The more I thought about it, the more I felt like this is a
sign, from a higher power, encouraging me to get the ball rolling  pursuing
my dream to train miniature guide horses.

I thought it was a long shot... but I emailed the women who owns Toylands
Falabella horses. She is one of the largest breeders in the United States &
just happens to live in the same state as me, Illinois. It's only a 3.5
hour drive away. In my email I explained my dream & described my
qualifications. She sent me back an enthusiastic email. Long story short,
she wants me to come to her place & meet me. She wants to discuss ideas &
start training her Falabellas for service work. I'm going to visit her in
about 1 week. I'll let you know exactly what day I go visit & how our
meeting goes.

Thank you so much for contacting me. Without your thoughtful action, none
of this would be happening right now. I think you should be the 1st person
to receive our 1st trained guide horse.

-Holly Fisher-








On Mon, Apr 29, 2024, 3:17 PM Josh Kennedy <joshknnd1982 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> My name is Josh Kennedy. I am blind and I live in Williamstown PA. I have
> a son who is 17 years old and who is sighted. He works at a local horse
> farm and lesson barn where he takes lessons and does IEA shows. I rode
> horses around 34 years ago in a therapeutic riding program in the early
> 1990s. Early last year, I was introduced to the miniature horse at the farm
> where my son works at. I knew about the Burlesons and the now abandoned
> guide horse foundation over 20 years ago but I had other things going on in
> my life. So at first when my son worked at the farm, during the winiter I
> would be in the farm owner's house. And because of bad experiences I had
> with dogs throughout my life I was not too comfortable being alone with the
> dogs or any dogs for that matter. Durinig 2023 I spent over 80 unsupervised
> hours with the mini horse, mostly in her stall since that is where her
> owner said I could spend time with the mini horse. During that time, I
> became more and more interested in horses as guide animals. I contacted Ann
> Edie, Alexandra Kurland and Dolores Arste who trained Ann's horse Panda,
> and Mona Ramouni who has her guide horse, Cali, trained by Dolores Arste. I
> now pay to take horsemenahip lessons at Carr's Prime Performance horses. I
> feel far more comfortable around horses than I do with dogs. I am very
> interested in having a guide horse. I am on social security, survivers
> benefits. Is there anything you could do to help so me and other people who
> are blind could have and use guide horses? Both Panda and Cali are also
> housebroken.
>
> eight reports on how Panda was housebroken and trained:
>
> https://www.theclickercenter.com/pg-2-basic-training-1
>
> youtube video on Panda's training:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLdO2cBAusw&t=48s
>
>
> interview with Ann Edie about working with Panda:
>
>
> https://soundcloud.com/josh-kennedy-997023397/guidehorseenhanced?si=b60d42a881b343b0b87c4b6578556177&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
>
>
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