Culture Dish

As far as I could tell in my reporting, the woman featured in Good Morning America's segment is the only person who uses a full size horse as a guide.  People actually use miniature horses for the job, which are much less obtrusive, and more useful as service animals because they function in the same way guide dogs do. Unfortunately, Good Morning America (GMA) didn't mention that -- instead, they gave the impression that there are numerous blind people riding around in stores on guide horses. It also repeated the often cited misconception that horses aren't as house-trainable as dogs.  They are.   

I knew this segment was in the works because GMA contacted the people who appeared in my New York Times Magazine story a day or so after it ran.  What's interesting is that GMA spent a day interviewing Ann Edie, the guide miniature horse user featured in my story.  But Ann doesn't appear in their segment -- I can't help but wonder if they didn't include Ann because she isn't, in fact, quirky.  Which was a fact I focused on in my article -- many problems faced by non-canine service animal users stem from the fact that they're often portrayed in the media as simply being wacky or crazy.  But Ann and the other guide miniature horse users I talked with were neither of those things.  I know Ann had hoped that talking to Good Morning America would help spread information about the complicated issues surrounding the proposed changes to the Americans With Disabilities Act, which would ban the use of all non-canine service animals.  But the segment didn't go into those issues at all. 

For more information on non-canine service animals and the proposed ADA changes, see Creature Comforts, as well as the extensive follow up on this blog (which includes comments from non-canine service animal users, video footage of guide miniature horses, and more).