A blind Muslim woman had to make do without a guide dog her whole life because her devout parents would not allow a dog in the house, considering the animal unclean.
But then, according to this report, Mona Ramouni learned about miniature guide horses.
The psychology student, from Dearborn in Michigan, Â used three years of savings from her job at a Braille proofreading company to pay for a horse to be trained to act as her guide.
Since welcoming three-year-old guide horse Cali into her home last year, Miss Ramouni has seen her life turned around.
Cali measures about 2ft 6in tall and has been taught to stand still indoors. She also helps Miss Ramouni get out of vehicles and move through crowds.
Her proud mistress said:
She is an awesome little horse. What I really want is to be able to take her places neither of us would have been able to go without each other. Before Cali, I had given up. I got to the point where I thought, ‘I’m going to get nothing out of my life’. Cali has given me the confidence back I used to have as a kid.
Born three months premature, Miss Ramouni lost her sight shortly after birth.
Among the challenges she had to overcome in order for Cali to stay at her home were getting a permit to place a large shed in her family’s garden and to find a farrier to look after the horse’s hooves.
Her friends warned her it would be a difficult thing to do.
But Miss Ramouni said:
The more everybody told me ‘No, don’t do it’ the more I wanted to do it. I got to a point in my life where I thought ‘Why should I settle for something less than I can have.
There have been so many obstacles. People said ‘You’ll never find a vet. You’ll never find a farrier’. I found them all.
Hat tip: BarrieJohn
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
November 14th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
When her parents murder her in an honor killing can I have the horse?
November 14th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
A sweet story. “God” bless her… Shame her parents are so fucking evil!
Even nutjob imams make exceptions for dogs for specific purposes – like this, security, etc – shit, even the Saudis haven’t banned dogs, though Iran is apparently clamping down…
November 14th, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Imagine depriving your daughter of the simple basics of life such as moving about more the world freely because an old book view’s a wonderful animal like a guide dog as unclean.
When ones devotion to faith takes precedence over caring for family then it is time to revalue the value of your faith.
November 15th, 2010 at 1:01 am
Sad. I hope the horse receives counselling for being forced into this household full of twats.
November 15th, 2010 at 1:44 am
I asked doG about this (Wiley, a fine german short hair pointer) he turned his nose away! I don’t think it’s dogs that are “unclean”……I’m with Dogon; when your “faith” overrules even your responsibility to family then there’s nothing worthwhile in it.
November 15th, 2010 at 1:59 am
Part of me is spitting-angry at the parents. The other part’s going ‘Awwww cute guide-horsey’. Could be a problem if it wants to sleep on the end of the bed, mind…
November 15th, 2010 at 2:02 am
What makes me cry is that a woman in her mid twenties who works and gets an education would still allow herself to be crushed under the weight of her parents’ superstitions. She’s not doing a lot of deep thinking. She’s obviously capable of doing good research (finding out about the horse), but not about confronting the superstition itself. What a waste.
November 15th, 2010 at 2:14 am
Anonymous:
To be fair, as a blind person, and without a guide-dog, she’s probably been more dependant on her parents than most people her age. Breaking away from a culture/religion can be hard enough for anyone, especially when it would mean a break with family. Doing so under her circumstances would be even harder, I’d say.
November 15th, 2010 at 2:40 am
They refused to have an “unclean” dog, an animal that can be trained to sit at the door and plea to be let outside to defecate and urinate. I wonder how “clean” their house will be with a horse inside.
November 15th, 2010 at 3:43 am
I’d rather pick up dog shit from the carpet than horse shit!
November 15th, 2010 at 3:54 am
The job of guidance is NOT restricted to dogs…
Life span: 12.8 years is the average life span of the average American or European dog.
The expected life span of a horse or pony is approximately twenty to thirty years.
Cost : RNIB says it costs £35,000 to breed, train and support a guide dog, while it only costs £10,000 to train a pony.
http://www.guidehorse.org/
November 15th, 2010 at 8:46 am
A guide horse – that’s unusual, and it makes a good short news story. Is there any need to drone on about the religious reasons behind it?
November 15th, 2010 at 9:06 am
When people put their religion above their own children’s welfare, that’s when religion stinks.
November 15th, 2010 at 9:14 am
chick-a-boom:
The religious reasons why her parents refused her the aid of the more obvious guide-dog, years earlier, are well worth discussing, or at least noting.
November 15th, 2010 at 9:26 am
What will the “neigh”bours think?
November 15th, 2010 at 9:36 am
“Is there any need to drone on about the religious reasons behind it?”
Would this story exist without the religious reasons behind it?
November 15th, 2010 at 10:43 am
Cost : RNIB says it costs £35,000 to breed, train and support a guide dog, while it only costs £10,000 to train a pony.
These figures do not appear comparable. This site puts the cost of training a guide dog at £12,500:
http://www.guidedogsgiving.org.uk/mikeandtom/
Guide horses are not so practicable, and very “gimmicky” in my view, and I have to say from my own experience with horses that these folks’ living rooms must pong a bit!
November 15th, 2010 at 11:04 am
This proves, of course, that Dog Is On OUR Side !
I’m a lurcher and terrier owner, so of course I think dogz r’ cool & funky !
November 15th, 2010 at 11:47 am
No binky you may not have the horse we shall have a horse roast so that we can all share
November 15th, 2010 at 11:53 am
My dog, a Labrador Retriever, does not crap or piss in the house. He also lies in front of the fire in the evening. Any food scraps he eats them. My daughter has a horse and that is never allowed in the house. The amount of crap and piss it does is massive. The expense is scary – shoes every six weeks and unlike with my dog she cannot take it to the vet.
It really is no contest. The dog wins.
PS I like horses.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
I’m a cat person myself, but God only knows where you’d end up if a cat took you for a walk!
November 15th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
The very great majority of blind and partially sighted (b&ps) people have to “make do” without a guide animal, without any religious bias issues coming in. I suspect most of them aren’t “making do” at all. There are only 4,500 guide-dog using people in the UK, and, according to the guidehorse website, only 7,000 in the USA.
When my employer embarked on a charitable program, those of us on the committee were quietly told why they had carefully devised the rules so as to make sure that no one would be able to propose the guide dogs association as a potential beneficiary, ie, it has a very successful public profile, but on careful analysis consumes huge amounts of money to the benefit of a very small proportion of b&ps people.
We remain in ignorance of many important facts in both this and the general case. What I have a strong sense of is being asked to go “aaaah” to manipulate my reaction to an issue that may be much more complex than appears at first sight.
November 15th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
@ivan
I was an enthusiast for Guide Dogs for the Blind until I discovered they are over loaded with cash and at the time I had a look the senior management were doing well including large interest free mortgages. Not what I thought I was giving my money to.
Time someone took a hard look at what goes on in charities. There is a lot of corruption. Any giving we do is to small local charities where we can see what is happening to the cash i.e. the local hospice for terminally ill children. If that doesn’t rip your heart I don’t know what will. Especially at Christmas.
November 15th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
I have known for years now that the Guide Dogs for the Blind charity in Britain was awash with money, as the fact has been highlighted so many times, but I had no idea that this also applied in the USA!
http://www.azcentral.com/news/.....g0916.html
Another case of Convergent Evolution, perhaps?
November 15th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
The interesting story is the horse, not the reasons behind it. There is nothing new there folks. But a guide horse?! Does she get to take it inside restaurants? Buses? Taxis? Where does it do its business? Does she have to clean up after it? How do blind people do that with dogs? There’s a whole bunch of interesting, or at least new, stuff there. The religious angle is not new or interesting – we’ve heard it many times before. But by all means, fulminate at will.
November 15th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
@chick-a-boom
Fascinating issues and I offer an opinion. I think the horse, quite small I note, will have the same criteria applied to it as guide dogs. You will often note the sign in restaurants and pubs “No dogs allowed except guide dogs.” What will now need to be placed beside these is a sign saying “No horses allowed except guide horses.” Three further issues arise:
1. Suppose someone decides they want their guide horse to be a Clydesdale – seriously huge but with lovely natures. And suppose this is refused. Is this discrimination against Clydesdales?
2. What about faeces or, if you will, horse shit? There are two ancillary problems (a) horses produce a lot of horse shit. The responsible owner not only worms their horses but also picks up the horse shit. A tedious task. (b) Unlike a dog I have never known a horse do other than shit when and where he wants. These are issues to be faced.
3. Horses are herd animals and no responsible owner leaves a horse alone in a field or, I suppose although we are into new territory here, a house. When necessary they will borrow a horse. What about the guide horse? Will there need to be a companion guide horse.
I think these are important issues and in the UK we probably need a Royal Commision to deal with them.
Final thought: the pig is a very intelligent animal. What about guide pigs. These would be smaller, fatter, and more intelligent.
I hope this helps.
November 15th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Broga: It did occur to me that elephants have excellent memories and a very long lifespan, so would be ideal as guide animals. They are also adept at finding water during periods of drought, I understand. I might also add that I could just imagine my grandmother feigning blindness in order to qualify for a guide horse, as she always sent us scuttling after any horse that passed when I was a boy, bucket in hand, to collect the droppings for her roses. Having her own pet manure machine on hand would have been more than she could have ever hoped for!
November 15th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Broga, barriejohn: Hee hee.
I assume horses can be trained to be just as acceptable in human society as dogs can, though I have no idea how one goes about it. Personally I have a weakness for water buffalo. Do you perhaps know how they are rated in various religions?
Off topic, but I was wondering when Peppa Pig might be withdrawn to avoid offense.
November 15th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Poor woman suffering being both blind and ADHD. How sick are these people?
Are horses allowed in taxis and buses? I seem to recall a few cases earlier this year where thick muslim drivers wouldn’t allow guide dogs.
November 16th, 2010 at 9:17 am
I like the potential for a Guide Pig. My late aunt had one as a pet and it was a terribly clever creature, by all accounts.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” Winston Churchill
November 16th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
@barriejohn/chick-a-boom
Yes we are now at last getting some creative thinking. Elephants clearly have many advantages. I have struck a pig problem. I heard on the radio this morning that pigs had been removed from christmas sets of farm animals following protests from jews and muslims.
Training horses. Horses are able to be trained far quicker than by the old brutal methods of breaking them. My daughter trained her new horse by the methods pioneered by the Horse Whisperer allied to clicker training. The speed of this and the amazing ability of the horse have to be seen to be believed. So there is definite potential there for horses.
All this shows what may be done with some new ideas and creative thinking.
November 16th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Isn’t she a little old to purchase her own “My Little Pony”? And why isn’t she pink and sparkly?
November 16th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Broga – “pigs had been removed from christmas sets of farm animals following protests from jews and muslims.”
Now here’s a problem. I find this treatment of pigs (and dogs) to be offensive. These animals actually do exist in our farms, so airbrushing them out is a lie. I don’t have a problem with people finding pigs offensive; that is their problem. But sets of farms animals don’t contain actual animals, only little pieces of plastic.
Anyway, the bottom line is this: we have two contradictory states of being offended. How is this to be resolved? Do I, as a believer of the value of accuracy in models, not have any right to not be offended? Should I burn a bowdlerised set of plastic farm animals in protest? What exactly is my right not to be offended?
November 16th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
… and I *really* like Peppa Pig. I will be *extremely* offended if she gets pulled.
November 16th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
“pigs had been removed from christmas sets of farm animals following protests from jews and muslims.â€
These stories mostly prove to be without foundation, or based on a solitary nutter.
November 16th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Don: I did send that story to Barry this morning, but with a warning that it seemed impossible to get verification of it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....slims.html
It also appears in The Sun, where the wording is suspiciously similar; and The Telegraph actually admits to getting it from The Sun, believe it or not! Everyone else is simply quoting the British news sites almost word for word, I’m afraid, though I suspect that ELC did take this action, due to the paranoia over upsetting Muslims today.
November 16th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
barriejohn
I did a quick search myself and also found the same phrases cropping up in different newspapers. I gather from that scant evidence that the set was sold internationally and pigs were in fact removed from the set because some markets didn’t want pigs, but that ELC has now decided that those markets aren’t worth the effort.
Companies make commercial decisions and newspapers report according to the currently active narrative. If ELC reckoned that including pigs was costing it x amount of sales in some regions of the world and that excluding pigs would not effect sales in other regions then financial logic kicks in. The Mail and the Sun then shriek ‘Dhimmitude!’
Once some people start saying ‘Oy, where’s my pig?’ they recalculate. I would be surprised if jewish and moslem customers in the UK had made this an issue, which is the obvious implication.
November 16th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
@chick-a-boom
I like pigs. Highly intelligent.
But what really gets me is all this nonsense about dogs being unclean. These bearded mullahs don’t look any too wholesome to me.
I have now heard an announcement on the radio that following complaints from parents who want a full complement of animals the pig is restored. Following earlier posts I have no idea how much of any of this is true. Does one thing just build on another?
November 16th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
I see, upon closer inspection, that The Mail cribbed the story from The Sun as well, whose eagle-eyed investigative reporters spotted it on the Mumsnet site! Oh, well.
http://www.netmums.com/coffeeh.....poses.html
I agree with Don’s summation.
November 17th, 2010 at 5:34 am
@binky – lmao hahahahah