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

David Evans drevans at bellsouth.net
Mon Dec 20 18:53:29 UTC 2010


Dear All,

Yes! a guide horse can go on an airplane.  They are about the same size as a 
guide dog, but I think there are some limitations .
The first guide horse was named "Cuddles" and did fly on a commercial 
flight, but did have some problems such as taking a dump on the plane.  That 
was a smelly business and pick up was a real crappy job.  I heard that a guy 
named John took care of it.
They , in most cases must wear a diaper now to avoid a messy clean up.
  They also must wear special little "sneaker style shoes to keep them from 
falling on slippery smooth floors.
They are very cute and very friendly.
They are smart and figure out things that a dog can not.  They have good 
judgment of situations, thus the term good horse sense does apply.
They do live over 30 years so one will do you for life  as opposed to 4 
guide dogs.
The biggest problem seems to be one of training and breeding.
Training so that they will get down and stay put in a small area under a 
table and their blatter control.  The breeding will get their size down and 
maybe help with the blatter control issues and the getting down issue.  Only 
time will tell.

David Evans, NFBF and GD Jack.
.----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kenneth Chrane" <kenneth.chrane at verizon.net>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 5:07 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Miniature guide horse opens door for blind student


> 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."
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nfb-talk mailing list
>> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk_nfbnet.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nfb-talk mailing list
> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk_nfbnet.org 





More information about the nFB-Talk mailing list