BLIND MAN HAS HORSE SENSE

By ADAM MILLER  (c) 2001 by The New York Post

‘SHOW' PONY: Dan Shaw enjoys a meal with his tiny, sneaker-wearing "seeing-eye" horse, Cuddles. - Associated Press

June 13, 2001 -- It's enough to make even the most jaded Big Apple straphanger do a double take: a miniature horse in sneakers on the subway.

And the diminutive filly isn't just any horse - she's the world's first "seeing-eye" horse.

The Big Apple was the final exam in Cuddles' training to become the constant companion and guide for Dan Shaw, a 45-year-old blind man.

"We were all over Manhattan, finishing our training," said Shaw, a bait-shop owner from Ellsworth, Maine, who suffers from a degenerative eye disease.

"We rode the subways everywhere and walked all the streets," Shaw told The Post yesterday.

He said the two-day romp with his 55-pound, 19-month-old yellow pygmy pony late last month was no problem.

"It was really great practice for us because the city is so busy," said the married father of four.

Shaw had balked at getting a seeing-eye dog, saying he could not bear the thought of losing an animal he would have grown to love when it dies.

Guide dogs live eight to 10 years, while horses can live for 35 years or longer.

Shaw met Cuddles in March, and after two months of training together, he brought the horse home.

Horses are excellent guides because of their longevity, excellent peripheral vision, good memory and instinctive caution.