Working Blind Horses?

[Carl Russell]

Anybody have any experience working with horses blind in one or both eyes?

My 9 yo mare has just started showing signs of significant blindness in her right eye, and there is reason to believe that the other eye has some rduced vision as well.

It is truly amazing to think of the kind of work I perform with her, and till now, I had very little indication that she wasn’t seeing well.

She has always had a tendency to pull the reins to the right, which I tried to attribute to teeth, but they were fine, and therefore have chalked it up to her being so much more ambitious that her team mate. But now it is clear, she has been trying to turn her head to get sight from her good eye.

Her ambition, is another factor. Man is she ambitious. Rarely does she show any inclination to shy, or hesitate to move a load forward.

This is going to be an interesting adventure if she continues into total blindness. She is one hell of a good work horse.

Carl

[Michael Colby]

Paul Ruta worked with a blind horse for years. Let me know if you need his number.

[Pete]

There was a guy at a local horse pull with a blind horse he also used him for logging said he was his best horse listened to him very well.

[jen judkins]

@Carl Russell 22496 wrote:

It is truly amazing to think of the kind of work I perform with her, and till now, I had very little indication that she wasn’t seeing well.

Horses are truly amazing creatures and so adaptable…..very humbling.

Have you had the vet out yet to have a look? One of my saddle horses has recurrent uveitis (moon blindness). He has some vision loss in the left eye, but I have been able to halt (or slow)the progression of his blindness using some dietary changes and other modalities. Since it is an auto immune disease, I am really careful about vaccines and any other stressors. We used alot of anti-inflammatories in the early years for flare-ups. I have not seen any further deterioration in his vision over several years, so I am hopeful he will not go blind…though most horses with uveitis do. He is not limited in any way that I can tell by his visual impairment. He is slightly more ‘perceptive to danger’ than my other horses, but that may represent his natural tendency more than any trouble seeing things. I ride him very regularly in the woods and on trails and we have no trouble at all.

There are generally other symptoms with Uveitis, like tearing and photosensitivity, so this may not be what is affecting Kate. I do know, from my visits to tufts and discussions with equine othalmologists, that some eye problems in horses can go bad very quickly, so its important to get an idea of what you are dealing with.

I knew a man who competed in cross country and show jumping at a quite high level with a horse that was totally blind in one eye. They could run a course and jump 5 foot oxers just like all the normal seeing eyes and in most cases went home with a ribbon. It was truly awe inspiring to watch their partnership, as they approached an obstacle from the blind side. The horse totally relied on the man’s focus and guidance to get over the jump.

Keep us posted, please.

[dominiquer60]

I worked with a horse once that was blind in one eye, she was used for handicapped lessons until she was 32 and was a saint. We used to put a race horse hood over her eye that had a solid hard plastic cup cover her bad eye and completely open for her good eye. This protected her eye from twigs when trail riding or other little things that she may not be able to anticipate.

A friend in college had a blind mare he drove with a stud, he put her good eye to the outside and the stud horse to her bad side, she/they drove for work and show just fine.

I hope you both can cope with this unfortunate issue, as long as you are both comfortable working together have at it, she is a great mare.

Erika

[mitchmaine]

hey carl, up in northern maine, you had to be careful buying a horse. if a man told you “he don’t look so good” that might mean he was blind.
the old wives tale about woods and pulling horses was that some would pull themselves blind. don’t know any truth behind that one.
a friend was having troubles getting his single in shafts. so we doubled up a grainbag and stuffed it into her bridle and tucked it in and blindfolded her. she walked into the shafts and we drove her around for an hour or so that way and she went great. that is the only experience i have with a sightless horse but what an act of faith. horses really amaze me sometimes.

[Jonathan Shively]

As a kid we (my dad and my brother and I) raced trotting ponies. My dad’s fastest pony was missing an eye due to my uncle hitting him with a hoe handle. Rex lived many many years, raced until we quit racing, pulled a buggy dang near until he died of old age.
I had a Haflinger/Percheron cross stud pony we used for breeding and worked. Andy lost his eye mowing hay with his previous owner. I bought him as a one eyed, three legged, foundered pony. After a year he came around to his old glory (I knew of him and had seen him worked in fields for a couple of years). Eventually kept enough of his daughters that he went on down the road.
Anyway, there have been others throughout my life that were one eyed for whatever reasons. Generally bought them cheap as people were leery, used them to the point people could see past the one eye and wanted them either for riding or driving. I am a talker anyway, so I myself haven’t noticed situations with a one eyed animal. Rex obviously was raced and driven single and he functioned flawlessly. Andy’s missing eye was right and was on the outside. Andy would hook anywhere and I used him for starting young ones (usually his get), and they were on his blind side, never thought of it until now. When I say I am a talker, I don’t hold conversations per say, but always give verbal commands, speak to them on the start of a hill either direction, speeding up or slowing down verbal commands that type of thing. About the only thing I can think of, if it is a missing eye or it has shrunk to no protruding eye ball, don’t spray, but do fly wipe it more often and use a wet washrag to wipe it clean around the edges and outside. I don’t know if it needed it, grew up with my mare not having an eyelash on one eye so it got gunky daily so just do those things out of habit and I like to wash my eyes in the mornings. Hope this helps.

[jac]

A few years ago I read a book about the stage coach days in Britain. Story goes that one driver had a particular team of 4 {bearing in mind they changed the whole team regularly} and when they were on the road the entire outfit had 2 eyes between them !!!.. the driver had one and the off lead had his offside eye {we drive on the right side of the road remember}:D.. the rest were blind:eek:.. Apparantly these guys became like the film stars of today and the boys of each regon had their favourite driver and used to cheer them on which led to some colorfull driving…
John

[Carl Russell]

jenjudkins;22502 wrote:

Horses are truly amazing creatures and so adaptable…..very humbling.

Have you had the vet out yet to have a look? One of my saddle horses has recurrent uveitis (moon blindness)….. We used alot of anti-inflammatories in the early years for flare-ups. …..

There are generally other symptoms with Uveitis, like tearing and photosensitivity, so this may not be what is affecting Kate. ….

…..The horse totally relied on the man’s focus and guidance to get over the jump.

Keep us posted, please.

Yes, my vet confirmed my observations, not only possibly chronic uveitis, with periodic weeping, but also looks like a cataract on the pupil as well.

We are just starting with Banamine to reduce inflammation.

I will try to work with treatments etc., but my main interest is in the functionality of a blind or sight-restricted horse. As I base my horsemanship on a strong relationship of communication and human guidance, her trust of me was never a question. However, I am now awestruck by the level that it has risen to.

Over the last year I have noticed that she overshoots the barn door when let in in the evening, but I just chalked it up to her possibly thinking about exploring other options. Two weeks ago I let her out of the pasture to walk to the barn. Ted trotted out of the gate, up the drive, into the lane to the barn, and into his stall. Kate wouldn’t cross the gate until I held her chin, then she walked right past the lane to the barn (on her now blind side), through a stack of pig food buckets, a patch of blackberries, and eventually into the barn and her stall. She obviously has some sight, as she can recognize that she is not where she wants to be, and to recover, so that she get where she wants to be.

Realizing now that the symptoms have been worsening over the last year or so, it is awe inspiring to think about the level of functionality that she allows me to guide her through.

Thanks for the feed-back. I am becoming inspired to rise to this new challenge…. logging with a blind horse….. now there’s a dance.

Carl

[jen judkins]

@Carl Russell 22512 wrote:

Thanks for the feed-back. I am becoming inspired to rise to this new challenge…. logging with a blind horse….. now there’s a dance.

Carl, I was going to send this comment to you privately….then I though WTF, I’ve embarrassed myself in front of this group enough, it shouldn’t matter…:eek:

When I first realized Manny was losing his vision, I was all up in my head about how I was going to end up with a blind horse. In a panic, I called doctors, read the literature, took him to Tufts…and they basically tortured him with tests. I struggled with ointments and eyedrops and all sorts of meds. Manny hated every bit of that and I finally had to stop….he was starting to regard me as a lunatic, unworthy of any trust.

I’m not sure I remember how it happened…it was awhile ago. But I was riding Manny and he spooked at something on his difficult side. At the time, I think I was unaware it was his blind side….distracted or talking with a trailmate or something. He did a very mild spook and then simply continued on when I didn’t react. A few minutes later I realized what had happened and it dawned on me that his unconfidence was directly related to my concern about his sight.

After that I consciously tried to stop thinking of him as sight impaired. And to be honest, we have never had a moment of uncertainty since. After awhile, the thought was unconscious…in fact I had not thought of Manny’s disability in years until your post this morning.

So I believe you can make what you want of a disabilty. It’s all about focus…in so many different ways….

[Jean]

Carl and Jen, do your horses blink a lot? I was watching Anna Mule and the littles today while they were getting their hoofs trimmed. Anna Mule blinks (she has uveitis) 50 to 60 times more than the minis. Someone suggested I use eye drops, because the blinking is from dry eyes. I had never really paid any attention to the blinking before.

Anna Mule does not seem to be bothered by her very bad vision when we are working. She does not like to be in with the bigs because all we think she sees is their huge shadows and that freaks her out a bit. So far she has not been spooky in harness. However she is more relaxed when I talk to her about what we are doing and don’t rely on the lines alone.

[Jonathan Shively]

I think they are confident in their personal teamster and if they with you experience the loss of sight, they will either adjust and continue working or become beligerent for their lack of confidence/sight. As the sight is fading, come up with words for hole, step/rock/water/mud/slippery, so communication is understood. I think they enjoy getting out and being worked as it is a comfort zone for so many of them. Our one eyed pony trotted miles upon miles of roads with nary a trip. The only bad spook I had from my stud was when the neighbor set his planter down and the marker arm came down in front of my team (about four feet in front of them). Heck, I jumped as much as they did!!! I think key is, none of the ones I worked in harness or under saddle had an instinctive flight response that was uncontrollable. If that were the case, they would only be dangerous. Basically, confidently I would say any horse that is a trusting working partner, short of traumatic injuries causing the loss of sight (trailer wreck, etc), they will continue being partners in work. We just have to remember and work accordingly. In the barn with a radio on, they are more susceptable to jumping maybe squashing you against the stall wall if you don’t warn them you are coming to their head. These are the learning curves for us more than the horse. I have another situation with my old posse horse. Having shot hundreds of rounds off of her back with my 686 S&W 357 mag revolver, she is deaf. This means she is hard to catch in the pasture as she doesn’t hear you. Startled, she will run to the back. Under saddle, no problem, in the barn the only problem is pulling back if she is startled at the head. The only people that know this about her are told or know her and I. No outside displays showing this lack of hearing. Her ears do tend to point to the sides of her head giving her an unintelligent look. Me the rider if I make a whistle noise or pat/pet her neck she points her ears forward. Kind of like a dog wagging its tail when petting. I think there are tones, I have tried a dog whistle, while working an intersection at a parade an ambulance pulled straight up to us and my partner with lights and sirens on, he got dumped, we stood fast. I don’t think this was due to her lack of hearing at that point other than it probably attributed to it greatly. Just my random thoughts. Tell me to shut up any time.

[Carl Russell]

Jean;22530 wrote:

Carl and Jen, do your horses blink a lot? I was watching Anna Mule and the littles today while they were getting their hoofs trimmed. Anna Mule blinks (she has uveitis) 50 to 60 times more than the minis. Someone suggested I use eye drops, because the blinking is from dry eyes. I had never really paid any attention to the blinking before.

Anna Mule does not seem to be bothered by her very bad vision when we are working. She does not like to be in with the bigs because all we think she sees is their huge shadows and that freaks her out a bit. So far she has not been spooky in harness. However she is more relaxed when I talk to her about what we are doing and don’t rely on the lines alone.

Jean, I have never noticed excessive blinking. The weeping and gunky eyes, or a half-shut eye are symptoms that I have noticed, but always believed they were symptoms from flies, dirt, or injury, etc. I had never heard of Uveitis.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

From observation, I’m not sure that the anti-inflammatory treatment is working, not much change in the constriction of the pupils.

However, when I turned her out today, I let her go first. She ambled out toward a pile of hay, and as soon as I released Ted, about twenty feet behind her, as he, in his usually way, started to trot away from me, she laid her ears back, bucked, and charged off bucking and twisting straight at the garden fence, where she wheeled and skidded to a stop.

She’s got to be able to be seeing pretty well to do that. She also didn’t miss the lane to the barn tonight, although she did lower her head and sniffed several times as she was working her way in slowly.

The jury is still out on the seriousness of this affliction. Vet will be back in a week or so to take a more serious appraisal.

Carl

[jen judkins]

@Jean 22530 wrote:

Carl and Jen, do your horses blink a lot?

When there is a flare up yes….but otherwise no. He hasn’t had a serious flare up since we moved to NH. I’m sure its the good country air 😀

[Author]

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