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

[David Evans]

Dear All,

Mini horses are the only exception in the DOJ's latest ruling on service 
animals.  Only dogs and mini horses are to be consider service animals and 
this ruling excludes so called "Emotional Support " animals, which are now 
considered "pets" only.
The mini horses are even more intelligent than dogs because of bigger brain 
and have the benefit of a longer life span.  They are so smart and that is 
where the term" good horse sense comes from.
They do have draw backs.
They do not have the blatter control that dogs have and must wear special 
rubber sole shoes to keep them from slipping on smooth floors.
They also do not like to lay down and get under a table or chair like dogs 
do.
They are still new to the guide animal department so we will just need to 
cut them some slack and see what happens in the future.

David Evans, NFBF and Guide Dog Jack.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cindy Handel" <cindy425 at verizon.net>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 9:10 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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