What a cute helper!

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The other day my daughter and I heard a snippet on the radio about a guide animal for a blind person who had a phobia of dogs. Unfortunately we missed the first part so didn’t catch what animal it was, but we could hear clip-clopping sounds in the background of the piece. But surely it couldn’t be a horse? Maybe a donkey or even a goat, we pondered. Yesterday I stumbled across the story again online, and yes it seems that it really is a horse – a miniature one called Digby. Guide dogs for blind people have been around for decades, and other assistance dogs are becoming more common, but other assistance animals are rare – although of course horses have been assisting humans in all sorts of other ways for millennia. Having experienced first hand the difficult process of training an assistance dog (some of you may remember my stories about Pup) I wonder what it is like to train a horse for this role. The advantage of course is that horses live a lot longer than dogs. The other issue is their acceptance in wider society. Even though guide dogs are well known, every now and then there is still a story about someone being refused entry to a restaurant or shop, or refused a ride in a taxi, because of their dog, even though such a refusal is against the law. Taxis seem to be a particular problem, perhaps because taxi-driving is a popular occupation for Muslim men and they consider dogs unclean. But would they accept a horse I wonder? I’ll be interested to follow this story and see how it develops – maybe they will become a common sight. Apparently they are established as guide animals in the United States – have any of you come across them? Digby’s certainly a real cutie at any rate! All rights reserved. © Text copyright Fleur 2018.