Miniature guide horse opens ‘whole world’ for blind woman

But this summer, Ramouni, 28, will get her wish. Cali, her miniature guide horse, moves to Michigan in June.

“I know that because I’m going to get this horse, I’ll be a little more independent, and my parents will let go a little more,” said Ramouni, a Braille proofreader and tutor. “Not that they’ll want to, because they’ll have to.”

A Muslim who wears a traditional hijab, Ramouni felt that a service horse would fit her life and culture better than a dog.

The horse’s full name is Mexicali Rose — reflecting her birth on Cinco de Mayo, a day of Mexican celebration.

Cali is an American miniature horse, and horses of her ilk were first bred for European royalty and later to haul coal out of mines.

Ramouni was introduced to the idea of service horses when she read about a blind woman in New York, Ann Edie, who uses a miniature horse named Panda. She tracked down Panda’s trainer, Alex Kurland, who put her in touch with animal trainer Dolores Arste.

Arste, 61, found Cali.

“The owner felt that Cali was meant to do something else,” she said.

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, Cali must be treated like any other service animal who accompanies a person with a disability.

“She is considered a service animal,” said Ramouni, who tutors blind students on computer usage at the Wayne County Library for the Blind in Westland, Mich. “People can’t tell me to get out of a restaurant or a hotel.”

Because Ramouni, who lives with her parents, had no experience with guide animals, both she and Cali are in the process of being trained.

During a three-day orientation this week, Arste taught Ramouni to move deliberately and slowly.

She has learned to use clicking sounds to guide the horse’s movements and hay pellets to reward the correct action.

“Mona didn’t want a strong pull on the harness. She just wants Cali to be there,” Arste said. “If she loses her balance, you can lean on her, and Cali will hold her up.”

One interesting thing about a service horse is that it can be trained to relieve itself on command.

Ramouni is learning to read Cali’s fidgety signals, and when she uses the words “Get busy,” Cali knows it is time to go to the bathroom.

But incorporating Cali into Ramouni’s life isn’t as easy as mastering one command.

It was a struggle Wednesday morning for her to learn how to put Cali’s harness on, to maneuver her around the block for a morning walk and to learn how to pick up her waste from the hay-covered floor of her shed.

“Oh my God, it’s hard as hell,” Ramouni said afterward.

When Cali moves to Michigan this summer, she will live in a converted barnlike tool shed, erected on a concrete slab in Ramouni’s spacious yard.

Ramouni has an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Michigan-Dearborn and nearly has completed a master’s degree in health psychology.

She said she hopes to begin work on a doctorate in clinical psychology at U-M in Ann Arbor in the fall — which means Cali will be going to class, too.

One of Ramouni’s challenges will be to keep strangers and passers-by from trying to hug or pet Cali because she is working and should not be distracted.

Ramouni even had to hold herself back from hugging Cali when she first met her during a visit in December. But she has learned to pet her profusely when Cali follows her command.

“I feel like my whole world just opened up,” she said. “It’s the coolest, most awesome feeling.”