Another pair of eyes

As you probably know I have a stupid dog, a very sensible cat and another cat with a personality disorder.

                                                     
                                                            Thick as mince. But colour co ordinated.

They are all useless.

                                                
                                      Mrs Brambles has extreme personality disorder.....as you can see.

They lie around the house, eating, sleeping, getting in the way, producing smells and noises from various orifices and generally failing to be adequate.

 But they are never boring.
                                               
                                                           
                                                    Pi, the sensible cat.

 Mathilda is a rescue Staffie. A survey published a few weeks ago showed that Staffie’s are now the fourth most popular breed in Britain. Unfortunately they are still the breed most likely found in rescue homes but the message is getting through. They are lovers not fighters, kissers not biters. Especially if there is a treat in the offing.

                                         
                                                  Pi is 18, seen it all, done it all, impressed by nothing.

The most popular dog was, as it always is, a Labrador.  Personally I am not that fussed on them. They sit about a lot; they do as they are told. Where’s the challenge in that.  Big, soppy, fat and they smell when they are wet.  People think that they are used as guide dogs for the visually impaired because they are so bright. Not so. They are used as guide dogs as they are programmable.  The last thing you want in a guide dog is the capacity of true intelligence, the capacity for independent thought and reasoning.  Imagine  having a border collie as a guide dog, going to work on the bus on a hot summer day and while waiting on the bus the dog thinks ‘Why am I going to sit in an office all day, let’s cross the road and get the bus to the beach!’

Actually writing that I’ve realised that I can’t remember what the sun looks like but you get the drift.

But to be honest I know a guide dog (black lab) who refuses to walk past a certain cake shop until he gets a scone. And today in the news there is a Golden Retriever who drives a tractor on the farm. I guess with Brexit with need to replace the migrant farm workers with something.

And yesterday in GB, the first guide horse is in training for a 22 year old man, sight impaired, and is phobic about dogs.  The horse is an American small horse. Or a small American horse?  BBC journalist Mohammed Salim Patel is getting the eight month Digby, all of 24 inches at the withers, to help him with daily tasks. Digby will be in training for two years, including time when both human and equine are being trained together.

                                                Some heavy horses doing their stuff.

Mohammed does admit that it will take him ages to do anything. How long will it take to go round Asda when every second person wants to pat your horse?

I first heard of guide horses for the blind a few years ago and recall that the big drawback was they would not be accepted socially. A dog will lie under the table in the pub, a horse is a little more obvious. But could be used as an extra table I suppose. Research has now shown that the reverse is true. When seeing a horse in harness people will think working horse whereas a Labrador is a dog and therefore due hugs and cuddles.

 Seemingly there are fourteen American small horses in training in the USA, and given that they live for 40- 50 years, they are much better value for money than a dog.  A guide horse has also been the first horse to fly in the passenger cabin of an air craft.

They do have many advantages. Dogs are predators and are geared neurologically to hunt in their DNA. We have turned them into guardians and Shepard’s but mostly, they chase things and eat them. Including tennis balls.  Horses are prey, they are neurologically programmed to keep safe and be wary.  They are not easily distracted by people petting them when there is something unpleasant on the horizon.

A survey in the states has shown that 27% of visually impaired people would prefer a Guide Horse

But, knowing horses as I do, they like to eat.  Their diet is full of roughage and poor in quality so they like to graze for hours, then sleep to digest. A fit dog will eat for 2.5 seconds once a day and that does it fine. Do working guide ponies get to graze? Or is it like owning an electric car, you incorporate the ‘charging up’ into your lifestyle.

The advantages of guide horses are obvious, especially if the candidate has been a horsey person in the past or are allergic to dogs. And it does mean that the grief of losing a beloved guide dog is spared, due to the pony living that much longer.  The ponies are also strong enough to provide physical support, helping their person up from a chair or out of bed, something even the best strained guide dog would struggle with. They also live outdoors when not working which appeals to some people.

If you think how desensitized police horses are, then it all makes sense.  Their excellent all round vision means they are alert to danger, and their good memories means they teach themselves about what has been a threat before and is best avoided.

And yes, they can be house trained. Which reminds me of the old joke about give me a home where the buffalo roam, and I’ll show you a house with a filthy carpet.

                                     
                                                A guide donkey???  Heee Halways calls me that!

We used to get our milk delivered by a horse and cart. The horse, a Clydesdale called Major used to do the round himself, in and out the traffic , doing a three point turn himself as we lived in a Cul De Sac. The milkman ran up and down the gardens to leave the milk on the doorstep and left Major to his own devices.  He made the national news when he retired, probably due to diabetes because of all the sugar cubes the kids used to give him.

Caro Ramsay 09 02 18