My poor horse is virtually blind in one eye.

Doormouse

Doormouse

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My gift horse, ex racehorse, has a bad cataract in one eye. He has possibly no more than 20% vision in it. The good news is, the other eye is fine!

He was given to me in April and because he came from a good yard and had been a very good racehorse, 6th in the World Hurdle, won a group 1 etc it never really occurred to me to have his eyes etc checked, which is stupid because I normally do. He has recently been blood tested as I felt he looked a bit off and he has a low grade virus so is on the easy list. Since then he has developed a strange habit of shaking his head up and down when ridden which has increased day by day and has also got the pint where I have to take the bridle apart to get it over his off side ear.

I got the vet today to check for a possible tooth problem or something down his ear, neither of which he found but he did notice that the light reflected strangely in that eye and had a proper look and said he has a large cataract and can see very little.

He is not at all spooky, never different to ride on either rein, no worries about traffic on that side, no problems in his stable, apart from the ear thing so we assume he has had it for a while. When jumping he does stop at random fences, not necessarily the expected scary ones, I wonder if this could be why?

So, has anyone experienced this and have the horses been happy and able to lead a normal competitive life?
 
my boy coped brilliantly with sight in one eye his sight deteriorated due to uvitus and left him blind he had it removed over a year ago due to the uvitus returning and is still able to lead a normal life he does get a bit funny about being on his blind side in the stable but hes had a terrible life before coming to me so think thats just him my old loan pony came to me also blind in one eye we did everything other horses did she was only funny if another horse came up on her blind side bit of reassurance tended to help her out :)
this is my old boy minus a eye its quite a talking point with some people haha
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Bex_X said:
my boy coped brilliantly with sight in one eye his sight deteriorated due to uvitus and left him blind he had it removed over a year ago due to the uvitus returning and is still able to lead a normal life he does get a bit funny about being on his blind side in the stable but hes had a terrible life before coming to me so think thats just him my old loan pony came to me also blind in one eye we did everything other horses did she was only funny if another horse came up on her blind side bit of reassurance tended to help her out :)
this is my old boy minus a eye its quite a talking point with some people haha
jackeye.jpg
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Thank you, that's great to hear. I love your boys face!
 
Just to give you an idea, he is quite happy jumping!

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And he is very kind and gentle! In my defence I do not allow her to do this, I literally turned my back for a second and she was in there!

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Where I work they have a pony who went out on loan and unfortunately was left to it's own devices and developed a problem in it's eye and they didn't do anything about it until it was to late to do anything. She copes perfectly fine, is still a cheeky little madam, she just bumps into things if you lead her on her blind side and as long as she is with horses that aren't the bully type,unfortunately some of the younger horses caught on to her being blind and would come up on her blind side and corner her and kick her. But you do forget she is blind as she behaves just like any other pony.
 
We have a one eyed haflinger on the yard :) He's new, so I'm not thoroughly acquainted with him yet, but he hacks out and schools just fine. We even went through a few kilometers of wild forest with no path, fallen trees and rocks everywhere and he coped well with no stumbles.
 
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The main thing i found is routine. keep water buckets, hay nets, feed buckets in same place in stable. try not to change layout of stable so horse knows way round. Try to keep to same routine how you put head collar on lead in etc. Baby had blindness in both eyes and tended to stop and look at things. i allowed her to as wasnt naughtiness just her double checking stuff :). I also had to be sensitive when riding as she would over bend (blindness at bottom of eyes) or go round looking at school fence small price to pay to still ride her :)
 
Thank you everyone. He seems to cope remarkably well with it and to be honest there is no way you would know. I suspect he has been like it for a long time so has adjusted over time. The vet said I needed to be careful at half light and in the dark because things would become distorted for him and he would be more likely to panic?
 
OrangePepper said:
Cataract surgery can be carried out on horses. Dr Tim Knott a vet at Thorbury Bristol has carried out cataract operations on horses.
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Thats good to hear because my vet said there was nothing you could do? I suppose they would be very expensive though and sadly he isn't insured for vets fees and even if he was they would claim it was a pre existing condition.
 
One eyed horses do perfectly well especially those who have lost the sight gradually. I had a pony that had been blinded my a trauma (shortly before I had him) and he was a bit of a handful until he got to grips with viewing the world differently. After that he was fine and did everything just like any other horse.
 
I know 2 people with one-eyed horses, both compete regularly both at RC and local agri shows level. neither horse seems to be at all worried by anything much. I suspect that partial sight in one eye might cause more of a problem though, as your vet said, in half-light or if they just catch sight of something and aren't sure what they've seen.

It's good to hear tht your horse seems to be coping well.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I know 2 people with one-eyed horses, both compete regularly both at RC and local agri shows level. neither horse seems to be at all worried by anything much. I suspect that partial sight in one eye might cause more of a problem though, as your vet said, in half-light or if they just catch sight of something and aren't sure what they've seen.

It's good to hear tht your horse seems to be coping well.
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I think that is probably the case, he did say that they are probably better when they are completely blind in one eye. I guess I will just have to keep monitoring it, and the other eye and if he starts to struggle we may have to remove the eye.

If he managed to win races and run over fences with it I have alot of respect for him because it must have been frightening.
 
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