hello My name is Amie Henley and I Love Doctor who, horses and my family and friends. Guide Horses Rough Draft Amie Henley
How It Started It all started in 1998 on a business trip to New York. On a horseback Janet and Don Burleson noticed how the horses were able to sense on their own when to cross the street. Once they got back, they started on their idea of training miniature horses to be Seeing Eye horses. “Janet also remembered, as a young girl, once watching a blind rider compete in horses show “the women gave the horse directions, and it took her around the obstacles and the other horses in the class,” she recalls. “It was serving as her guide and that was something I’d never forgotten” Piecing this all together Janet Started wondering: could a miniature horse be trained as a guide animal for the blind?”(Peterson 72) The Burleson’s ponies go through a rigorous training program exactly like a guide dog’s. They also undergo the same systematic desensitization training that is given to riot-control horses. These little animals have to meet all requirements to become a trusted guide for the blind. It takes around eight months to train one and isn’t always easy. Don tells of the first time they took one to the grocery store. It grabbed a Snicker bar off the shelf. After a long process of training they tried out their first guide horse “Twinkie”. After the maiden voyage they started getting calls from blind people who wanted to apply for guide horses.
Dan Shaw: The First to Use A Guide Horse
Throughout his life Dan Shaw he has never had any luck. When he was seventeen he went on a routine doctors visit , where he found out he had retinitis pigmentosa, which is an incurable eye disease that deteriorates your sight over time. They said he would be bling by the time he reached middle age. So until then he would have to watch his sight slowly fad away. In 1998 he decided to a school for the blind to learn some basic skills, such as how to cook and read Braille. With the walls closing in he wanted to still have contact with the world. He was surprised that there were such few options. That’s when he heard about Janet and Don Burlesons experimental program. They were training miniature horses to be guide horses. Dan was interested when he found out that horses live thirty to forty years. So he applied to be the first person in the world to use a guide horse. And the adventure began. The Burlesons started training “Cuddles” a tiny little angle in Shaws eyes. Shaw kept in touch with the Burlesons during Cuddles' training period. On March 6 of this year, the Shaws flew to Raleigh, where they met Cuddles for the first time. They walked together, with Cuddles leading and Shaw and Janet Burleson holding her harness. She let go and sent Shaw and Cuddles into a crowded store, where the aisles were jammed with merchandise. She followed behind. She watched them as they worked as a team. It was them she knew that they were ready.
Training a Guide Horse The process of training a guide horse is very detailed. First they start with basic lead training. They teach the horses to move at the speed that the handler commands. They learn to move around everyday obstacles. The next step in voice command recognition, where the horse in trained to respond to23 voice commands. The next step is where they teach the guide horse to move around both stationary and moving obstacles. Then they teach the horses to be able to signal to the handler that there is a step or ramp. The next step is housebreaking. This step is virtually easy because the horses already don’t want to go in the house. The next step is probably the most important step. The intelligent disobedience. The horse is trained to be able to disregard any commands that the horse knows would be unsafe to be horse and the handler
