Man guided by love of a horse Miniature equine, friend change blind owner’s life

ELLSWORTH – Two years ago, resident Dan Shaw was the first visually impaired person in the world known to have a seeing-eye horse.

Now he has two horses.

Shaw, 46, got his first horse, Cuddles, in 2001 because he has a genetic degenerative eye disease that has left him with almost no vision. He thought about getting a guide dog, but, because he didn’t want to outlive any guide animal he might acquire, he got Cuddles, a 3-year-old miniature horse with a life expectancy of 40 to 45 years.

It is clear from the way Shaw talks about Cuddles that his affection for her and the admiration he has for her performance as a guide animal run deep.

“I feel blessed to have such a good guide,” Shaw said recently at his home.

The reason Shaw got Nevada, a 4-year-old male miniature horse, was not that he was dissatisfied with Cuddles.

It was to keep Cuddles company when she wasn’t working.

Nevada came from the Guide Horse Foundation in North Carolina – the same organization that trained Cuddles, according to Shaw. He had learned about the foundation from a television episode of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.”

Nevada was not trained as a guide animal, however, because, at 28 inches, he is 2 inches taller than the foundation’s height limit for miniature guide horses. Cuddles, at 24 inches, can fit underneath restaurant tables that Nevada cannot, Shaw said.

Guide horses cost about $25,000, but Shaw had a sponsor who paid for the full cost of Cuddles.

Shaw paid for Nevada out of his own pocket, but it “wasn’t a lot,” he said.

The Ellsworth man said he thought there were six other people in the country who have guide horses. Nine horses are in training, but there are more than 120 people on the foundation’s waiting list, he said.

Shaw said he has been training Nevada on his own, not as a guide animal but as a companion for his beloved Cuddles.

“When I got Nevada, he was wild as a deer,” Shaw said. “He’s not housebroken or anything.”

Cuddles and Nevada instantly bonded when they met in the corral behind Shaw’s home, he said.

“All they did was run together,” Shaw said. “They get along real well.”

Cuddles is house-trained and is comfortable in noisy, crowded spaces, according to Shaw. She has ridden with Shaw on the New York City subway and has visited crowded tourist spots with him in Washington, D.C.

To help Nevada grow accustomed to noise, Shaw has put a radio and even a television in the barn in his back yard. Nevada is much tamer now than when Shaw first got him, also in 2001, he said. He takes both horses out together whenever he can.

Shaw said his affection for Nevada is as strong as his affection for Cuddles. Last summer, Nevada developed colic, a possibly fatal intestinal condition, while Shaw was being interviewed by Reuters television. He had learned from the foundation how to deal with colic and was able to cure Nevada’s condition.

“I had tears running down my face,” Shaw said. “I wanted to get him going.”

Since he got Cuddles, Shaw has been interviewed by television networks in America, Germany, Japan and Korea and has been profiled in People and Newsweek magazines.

There have been some drawbacks to the attention Shaw and Cuddles have received, however. Shaw now has a new, unlisted phone number because people called him at odd hours of the night, he said.

His bait shop also went under because of the amount of time he has spent talking about Cuddles and raising money for the Guide Horse Foundation.

Shaw, however, is keeping busy. He is working on a children’s book about Cuddles and himself.

He said he would not change anything if he had to do it again. He is happy with the horses he has and hopes he never has to get another one.

“If I need another one [years from now], I’ll be too old to walk anyways,” he said.