Guide ponies?

What you have to remember the girl is of the Muslim faith and they count dogs as unclean that is why they are not allowed in the house, but chained up outside and kept as guard dogs or fighting dogs, horses and donkeys dont fair much better.:(:(:(:(:(:(
 
I don't understand how you'd train one though, I mean horses are lovely but they don't think in the same way as dogs (well, most of them, mine chased a tennis ball today - intended for my dog - but I suppose he thought it was an apple or something :o) so things like litter training and leading through crowds would be difficult to teach, I'd have thought. Sweet though :D
 
I saw a story years ago where a little girl had a guide pony that took her to school (I think it was in Germany but not sure now). If you google 'guide pony' you will see there are loads of them. It makes sense when you think about all the cost and effort that goes into training guide dogs and then they have to retire after a few years, whereas ponies have a much longer working life.
 
I was browsing through the US guide horse site from here, and I was amazed to see the Dartmoor pony being listed as a miniature breed! They say many are miniature horse size (under 28inches). under 7hh Dartmoors? Really?
Quotes from site: 'The Dartmoor Pony is an official miniaturized horse breed and registered in the UK Rare Breed Trust.' and ' the miniature horses face a grim fate each fall' (talking about the sales for meat).
Is there something I never knew about Dartmoors? Or are those Americans a bit bonkers?
 
There've been several mini horses trained as guides for the blind, by different people in the USA.

One mare, Panda, was trained using clicker training by Alexandra Kurland, and has been working successfully as a guide for 7 years. There's a detailed account of her training here:

http://www.theclickercenter.com
 
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