Wrackspurt wrote:
The alternate and more realistic opposing side of 'neat'.
http://www.guidehorseno.com/Or, you know, not. Alternate side, yes, more realistic, no.
Here's the thing: If you look at your average dog, you have about the same success rate as you would for a pony. Dogs wash out of service training all the time, whether it be due to temperarment, health issues, or inability to master the commands. If I looked at Heidi, my old lab (one of the most used breeds), I'd think oh God no, she'd lead me straight into traffic. And she would, because as much as I adored her, she wasn't all that smart. You have to look for specific qualities, and even then, it might not work out. You might be able to make do with a dog who doesn't fit all of your requirements, but it isn't easy, and it'll never be as effective as it could have been had a more suitable dog been picked.
The average person doesn't know about what traits to look for, how training works, or how the animal's size, bone structure, and health can affect it. It can take years to find the right one. So all of those endorsements from pony breeders on that site are essentially useless. The majority of them probably know next to nothing about service animals. They see an article and think oh, my horse would kill me if I let her direct me. We shouldn't let that happen. Nevermind that their horse has had no training and might wash out anyway.
The site you posted is so biased that it doesn't really look at facts. The most credible article they have there (from the National Federation for the Blind) is based more on one specific training facility than anything else. There's little to do with the practiciality of guide horses themselves, and what there is is about how they're bigger and use the restroom more often than some dogs. The first article is from a woman who hasn't even tried to teach her pony (and most likely got her dog from a school), the fourth article details an event that is only significant because of the rarity of horse guides (dogs spook as well) and shows that the woman hadn't properly tested for public access before, and the fifth is about the exact same orginzation as the third. The fourth raises some good points (although it's buried in a story that is not unlike the training of a dog, who can easily wash out due to sensitivity to noises and fear or certain objects), but most of them concern laws in Germany (the ADA allows guide ponys access to public places, so long as they can perform tasks just like service dogs), and once again, there's the presumption that the user wishes to be just like other people in that they use a bus and eat out in small resturants.
Their summary page is the only good start they really have, and even that is flawed because they haven't considered training and suitability. The one mention they make of how good training can make a successful guide is buried at the bottom of the Related Links page and hasn't been updated in a long time, despite multiple updates to the rest of the site. Their ADA proposed changes caused a lot of uproar, because people do have other types of service animals, although it's rarer. Unless I missed something drastic, it hasn't gone through.
I have no problem with saying that guide horses have more cons than guide dogs in general. There are pros and cons to both. In the case of the woman listed above, the guide pony serves her very well. In other (and most) cases, the dog is the way to go. My problem is more with the fact that that site you listed is biased so heavily that it doesn't even begin to cover the issue properly.
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"Nothing worth having is easy."
Three years!
04 Aug 2009, 6:39 am
