Since its founding in 1999, the Guide Horse Foundation has been experimentally training and pairing miniature guide horses with blind handlers. In the same way that a guide dog assists a visually impaired person, a guide horse follows voice commands, stops at curbs, navigates obstacles, and refuses to proceed in unsafe situations.
History of the Guide Horse Foundation
In 1999, a retired professional horse trainer named Janet Burleson, along with her husband Don, announced the completion of a study which showed the feasibility of training miniature horses as assistance animals. Interest in the Burlesons' study was so high that the Guide Horse Foundation was created to experimentally train and place the guide horses with blind handlers.
Training of Guide Horses
Miniature horses must be exceptionally small, in excellent health, and pass a field intelligence test before undergoing training to be a guide horse. Although professional horse trainers work with the guide horses, consultations with guide dog trainers and handlers help ensure that a guide horse has the ability to safely assist someone who is visually impaired.
Basic training of miniature guide horses is the same as that of larger horses. This includes teaching the horse to accept a halter and harness, lead, and follow simple commands to stop and start. More advanced training teaches skills necessary for assisting a blind handler, including:
- obeying 23 voice commands
- changing speed or gait on command
- navigating obstacles
- climbing stairs
- entering elevators
- avoiding moving obstacles
- recognizing steps, curbs and other changes in surface elevation
- refusing a handler's command when safety is at stake (intelligence disobedience)
- staying calm and undisturbed by distractions or chaotic situations
- maintaining bladder control
Why Miniature Horses Make Excellent Guide Animals
Horses in general are intelligent and highly trainable. The Equine Research Foundation of Learning and Behavior has shown that a horse's ability to learn increases in proportion to what it has already learned, enabling it to respond well to advanced training. Miniature horses have impressive long-term memory skills, have excellent stamina, have a long life span, can be housebroken and taught bladder control for up to six hours, and can be trained to enter public transportation and fit into compact spaces.
Pairing Guide Horses with Blind Handlers
Miniature horses are not suitable guide animals for all visually impaired people. Guide horses are most likely to be paired with blind handlers over the age of 16 who:
- have basic orientation and mobility skills
- are experienced with horses or are fond of them
- don't want a dog or an assistance animal which lives indoors
- live on a suburban or rural property where the miniature horse can be housed outside
If accepted into the Guide Horse Foundation's training program, an applicant becomes an apprentice handler who will be matched with a horse possessing compatible disposition, personality and performance skills. In more intensive training, the apprentice handler learns to work with his guide horse as a team and fine-tune safety and intelligence disobedience skills. Upon graduating from the program, home training and follow-up visits ensure that the guide horse and blind handler maintain a safe and effective working relationship.
Critics of Guide Horses
Despite the promising results of the Guide Horse Foundation's program, some critics argue that miniature horses are not suitable assistance animals for the blind. They cite such reasons as the instinctual fright and flight response of horses, their inability to lie still for a long period of time, and their typical reliance on a sighted handler. Visually impaired people who are interested in guide horses should research these concerns when determining whether a guide horse is a feasible mobility option.
Source: The Guide Horse Foundation
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