Blind Man With Dog Phobia Opts For A Miniature Guide Horse Instead Of A Guide Dog

1 min


You are blind and don’t want to forever flail your guide cane to find your way or spot obstacles in front of you. So, what are you to do? Well, find a guide dog. And what if you have a dog phobia? Then do what Mohammed Salim Patel did.

Patel is a visually impaired resident of Blackburn, UK, who works as a journalist for the BBC. And he is blind and has a massive dog phobia. It is the dog phobia that has driven him to opt for a guide horse. Says Patel, “I have a big phobia of dogs that I was not able to work out and it was good when I heard about horses being trained.”

He has distinguished himself by becoming the first blind person in the UK to be given a guide horse.Guide horse, you say? Well, these are small horses act as guides for the blind.

Patel is about to receive Digby, who is a two-feet-tall miniature horse. This eight-month-old American guide horse is a godsend for him, as it will enable him to move around and carry out his daily outdoor chores.  

Patel went blind due to a degenerative eye condition, known in medical parlance as retinitis pigmentosa. This is a genetic disorder in which the retinal cells, the light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye, suffer a breakdown and degenerate, causing blindness.

Before being handed over, Digby is being familiarized with the streets of Blackburn. And it will take all of two years for the training to get over.

Fortunately, Patel always loved horses and was happy to note what benefits this animal can provide for the visually impaired. However, he is a bit apprehensive in using this guide horse and says, “I also think I’ll have to give myself an extra hour to try to get around my daily routine as people will all want to come and see it and touch it.”


Like it? Share with your friends!

Comments

comments

Deepak Mehla

Participant

Working on building tools that will help people find quality content on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc., so they can spend less time scrolling through the feeds and more time discovering new things!

What's Your Reaction?

fun fun
0
fun
hate hate
0
hate
confused confused
0
confused
fail fail
0
fail
Cute
0
Cute
LOL
0
LOL
Love
0
Love
OMG
0
OMG
Win
0
Win
WTF
0
WTF
Angry
0
Angry
Cry
0
Cry
Geeky
0
Geeky
Choose A Format
Personality quiz
Series of questions that intends to reveal something about the personality
Trivia quiz
Series of questions with right and wrong answers that intends to check knowledge
Poll
Voting to make decisions or determine opinions
Story
Formatted Text with Embeds and Visuals
List
The Classic Internet Listicles
Countdown
The Classic Internet Countdowns
Open List
Submit your own item and vote up for the best submission
Ranked List
Upvote or downvote to decide the best list item
Meme
Upload your own images to make custom memes
Video
Youtube and Vimeo Embeds
Audio
Soundcloud or Mixcloud Embeds
Image
Photo or GIF
Gif
GIF format