Guide-Horses for the Blind
Posted by Cordite on Tue 11 Mar 2003 - 09:52
This article picks up the story of Janet Burleson, who founded The Guide Horse Foundation in 1999.
She has been training miniature horses for a role normally reserved for canines, but which she says they excel at - leading the blind and disabled. Despite criticism from guide dog groups, Burleson insists the miniatures to be calm, reliable, and naturally safety oriented, making ideal companions for certain indiviuals.
Comments
For those interested in learning more about horses and how they can help others, they can also see what therapy riding programs can accomplish, like the "Lift me Up" program - http://www.liftmeup.org/ , the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association - http://www.narha.org/ and the Loudoun County Therapedic Riding program - http://www.ltrf.org here in Virginia. While miniture horses may not be right for everyone, or for every purpose... you can't deny they have the ability to touch and affect someone who otherwise was unreachable.
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