autumn7
Well-Known Member
There are times when ridden that I suspect that my semi-retired 25 yr old cob mare's vision is not quite what it should be. She's gradually (over the past two or three years maybe) lost a fair bit of confidence when hacking out to the point where I no longer road hack but trailer her out to forestry for up to an hours mooch. She's a touch arthritic plus has laryngeal paralysis so this is as much as she copes with these days. She adores her outings and is certainly not ready to retire full time yet. However..... along with her loss of confidence she's also becoming more and more spooky at, what were, totally "normal" things ie. sight of a distant farmer's truck waaaay off over the other side of a field slowly wending its way to feed his livestock caused her to freeze in her tracks (on edge of forestry path) then "run away" at strong trot which developed in to a panicky canter (can't go far as serious wheezing deters her), then ends up in a sodden sweat. Such behaviour is totally uncharacteristic for this mare.
Anyway, a number of little incidents such as this leads me to suspect eye sight issues, but how would a vet detect failing eye sight in a horse, other than a blatently obvious lack of response to a torch shining in the eye, or something which would surely be obvious to our naked eye, such as thickening/whitening or such like??
Anyone had sight deficiency detected by a vet when the eye looks normal from outer inspection????
Anyway, a number of little incidents such as this leads me to suspect eye sight issues, but how would a vet detect failing eye sight in a horse, other than a blatently obvious lack of response to a torch shining in the eye, or something which would surely be obvious to our naked eye, such as thickening/whitening or such like??
Anyone had sight deficiency detected by a vet when the eye looks normal from outer inspection????