Guide pony for blind student

MONA Ramouni was taking notes with a Braille device when her guide pony Cali joined the class discussion with a sudden snort.

‘What do you think Cali?’ professor Shelley Smithson said with a laugh, and then steered the conversation back to theories of counselling and psychotherapy.

Cali is just one of a handful of miniature horses in the United States known to be used as guide animals for the blind and is likely the first pony to attend college.

The click of her hooves in the halls of Michigan State University is still turning heads three months after Ms Ramouni and Cali moved to Lansing for graduate school.

The university has an internationally recognised centre which assists disabled students and employees integrate into the community and achieve their full potential.

While there was some initial concern about whether Cali would make a mess or be a distraction, the tiny brown horse with a shiny black mane is surprisingly tidy and even gets along with the guide dog of one of Ms Ramouni’s classmates.