DEARBORN, Mich. — Seeing-eye dogs are a nonstarter among many Muslims who consider the animals unclean, but a horse the size of a dog just might work.
“This is a really awesome little horse,” Mona Ramouni said last week as she put Cali, a 3-year- old miniature horse, through her paces and rode the bus to work with her for the first time.
Ramouni lost her sight to retinopathy — damage to the retina — that is a frequent side effect of premature birth. She has relied on her family to guide her around the Detroit suburbs where she has lived and worked for all of her 28 years.
Ramouni, a Braille textbook proofreader, wanted more independence, but a guide dog wasn’t an option. The answer, she hopes, is Cali, short for Mexicali Rose. The former show horse is about 2 1/2 feet tall and weighs about 125 pounds.
“I want a horse that will be a partner for the next 30 or so years,” she said. “. . . What I really want is to be able to take her places and go places with her that neither of us ever would have been able to do without each other.”
Ramouni says having Cali as a guide opens up new opportunities, but the U.S. government may soon tighten the definition of a guide animal under the Americans With Disabilities Act to exclude farm creatures such as horses.
