Local Woman Gets Guide Horse

 VIDEO: SallyAnn Mosey reports
 

Shari Bernstiel is visually impaired, *legally* blind, with a degenerative eye disease. She uses a guide animal but it's not the four-legged friend you may think!

Meet Tonto! Since December, the two-foot tall, three-year-old gelding has been performing the job of a guide animal, safely taking shari where she needs to go.

Shari Bernstiel/LANSDALE, PA.: "I need to tell him which direction we're going..he will get me there safely."

That's including guiding up-and-down stairs, along and across the street, and on occasion he's in walking shoes so as not to slide on slippery floors at the shopping mall.

While shari realizes it's a novelty to see a miniature horse in public places, the biggest problem is people coming up to pet him...

Shari's a lifelong horse lover but never imagined having one until she heard a t-v report stating the life expectancy of a seeing-eye horse is more than double that of a dog...living in some cases up to 40-years.

Like most guide animals, Tonto was provided free of charge through donations to the Guide Horse Foundation in North Carolina.

But keeping a horse does have some expense, including a miniature barn in the backyard and some fencing. otherwise, she says it's been pretty inexpensive, less than $10-dollars a week.

In Lansdale, SallyAnn Mosey, Channel 6 Action News. Copyright 2004. All Rights Reserved.