Guide Dog User Visits Mona

Claudia visited with Cali and Mona. Claudia is blind and uses a Guide dog.
She also has horses. Since she also lives in Michigan. She asked about a mini
as a guide for some time in the future.

This is her report of visiting with Cali and Mona.

We had a fabulous time! Cali is unbelievably beautiful and smart, as good a
worker as any of my dogs! Mona spent about three hours with me and my
husband and shared a wealth of information. I learned so much about guide
horses over the weekend. I visited two farms on Friday and am forwarding
pictures for your opinion. After careful consideration, I believe the wisest
path for me is to look for the foal of my choice and raise it myself to be
trained when mature. I still have a good 3-4 or more years with Freedom and
I see real benefit to not having two guides at the same time. I also need to
research funding or grant feasibility to finance the training. As you know,
all my guide dogs have been provided to me with no charge. Training a guide
horse is unaffordable at this time . Michigan State University has an Human
Animal Bond Initiative which is a place for me to start. I'm hoping to write
a grant proposal to fund an experimental guide horse training project. Are
you interested in participating? I need expertise from the horse trainer's
perspective, as well as recommendations for potential grant resources. I
also invite you to start searching for the right foal. I am checking out
Michigan mini breeders as well. You probably have more resources on the east
Coast. I want an Arab, similar to Cali. Cali actually could pass for my Arab
mare's offspring, same color and disposition. Mona expressed interest in
visiting me and my mare and I plan to take pictures of Cali with Exie