Is this good advice?

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poiuytrewq

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I'm happy and grateful for any advice I'm given and usually at least give things a try.
This bit of advice I'm struggling with a little and wondered what you guys think.
My horse is blind one side and he is very spooky. Several people have told me I should be riding him in blinkers so he is more focused on what's ahead, amongst other reasons which sound like in theory they could be right.... I cant get believe that further restricting his vision is going to help him become less spooky, surely it might just make him worse?
If only one person had advised it I wouldn't even have given the idea a second thought but now several have mentioned trying blinkers.

Thoughts?
 
No idea what would be best in your situation. Best to give it a trial run and see if it makes an improvement. If not, then, never-mind.

The good thing about advice is that you don't have to take it, but if you think it may help, it's something to try and make up your own mind about.

Good luck :)
 
No.

I've had a one eyed horse, and they learn to look around them with the good eye. IMO it would be cruel to further restrict his vision.

He will most likely always be spooky on the blind side. I think you should perhaps be understanding and just learn to live with it :)
 
I agree with patterdale my friend has one eyed horse and her schooling has built up trust she needs to work her out of her comfort zone.She will flex on side she cant see because she trust her rider and this has helped with spooking issues.Shes does dressage hacks and little jumping actually she is perfect horse because she has been schooled so well.:D
 
Didn't someone on here post photo's of her horse doing XC rather well and the fact that he only had one eye was barely mentioned.

I haven't had a horse with one eye, but have known a few that did and they all managed fine, so I'm surprised to hear the advice you've been given.

Of course every horse is different, you just do whatever seems to work, but restricting vision further seems odd.
 
This kind of advice - which is nothing perminant I might have a go personally, if I can borrow some and try them in a secure school - if pony hates them, take them off and never touch them again - unlikely to do any long term harm IMHO.
I've no idea personally as never had a blind horse or one which wore blinkers.

Advice which changes things physically (shoeing, feeding etc. I'd do more personal research on as they can change things for the worse and take time to undo!)
 
horserider said:
Didn't someone on here post photo's of her horse doing XC rather well and the fact that he only had one eye was barely mentioned.
Click to expand...

I knew a girl in the pony club, her pony had one eye and they still made it round 3' XC and SJ courses, seemingly with no problems.

I can't see that restricting his vision would help. That's not even when blinkers are meant for anyway!
 
Possibly he is not completely blind in his blind eye and can still see shadows, so put a visor on which is smaller than a blinker but only on the blind eye and leave the other eye as is. Vet should shine a torch in the eye to determine how blind he is and if he can see anything, does his pupil restrict, do his eye lashes move when you wave your hand past his eye etc.
 
Hi everyone, Thank you for your thoughts on this. It would seem we agree mostly that its not a great piece of advice!
"he's blind in one eye" is force of habit phrase sorry, he only has one eye now, so no shadows etc.
He's fine with the blind side its the good side he's spooky on.
 
Personally i think bad idea as he needs the "good " eye to see all. does that make sense. baby as no sight at bottom of both eyes and when i was still riding her she looked like i was yanking head in but it was her way if looking down more for vision. bless her :)
 
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