Guide Horse - History

History

In 1998, while on a horseback ride in New York City, Janet and Don Burleson of Kittrell, North Carolina noticed how their horses were able to sense on their own when to cross the street. Janet recalled watching a blind rider compete in horse shows where “the women gave the horse directions, and it took her around the obstacles and the other horses in the class. It was serving as her guide and that was something I’d never forgotten.” She wondered if a miniature horse be trained as a guide animal for the blind. Janet had trained Arabian show horses for 30 years and was familiar with equine behavior. But her urban experience changed her view of the behavior exhibited by one of their pet miniature horses,“Twinkie,” on their farm back home. The animal often followed the Burlesons around like a dog, and rode in the back of their minivan. From these experiences, they began training miniature horses to be Seeing Eye horses.

Their first trainee was Twinkie. From that start, the Burleson developed a rigorous training program for miniature horses that was similar to a guide dog’s, adding systematic desensitization training similar to that given horses used for riot control. There were setbacks; the first time they took a miniature horse to the grocery store, it grabbed a Snickers bar off the shelf. The goal was to train these small horses to meet all requirements to become a guide animal for the blind.

One of the first people to use a guide horse was Dan Shaw. At age 17, he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, an incurable eye disease that deteriorates vision over time. In 1998 he attended a school for the blind to learn basic skills, such as how to read Braille. However, he stated, “... I was shocked at how few options I had. I didn’t want to struggle with a white cane, and I couldn’t bear the idea of having a guide dog because of the grief I had experienced when my beloved pet dog died 10 years before. I knew I’d feel the loss of an animal I had relied on for my independence even more acutely.” He heard about the Burlesons' experimental program and was particularly 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. The Burlesons started training “Cuddles” for Shaw. On March 6 2002, he flew to Raleigh, North Carolina and met Cuddles for the first time. After some introductory work, Janet Burleson sent Shaw and Cuddles into a crowded store where the aisles were jammed with merchandise, and they successfully navigated the store. Shaw stated, “I was about to become the world’s first user of a guide horse. I knew that there would be skeptics—people who didn’t believe horses had the right temperament to be service animals. After all, in the 1920s, when Dorothy Eustis began training German shepherds to lead the blind, many people scoffed at the idea. But I knew that getting my independence back would outweigh any criticism.”