question about one-eyed horse

MontyandZoom

MontyandZoom

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I have a polo pony who lost an eye in an accident before I had her. She is 9 years old and the most willing horse I have ever met! She has obviously not done much besides polo since she doesn't understand schooling, however she is desperate to please and tries her best to do what I am asking.

My question is.........do you think that she could learn to jump? Her eye doesn't seem to affect her in any way but I wonder whether it would prevent her from jumping (not hickstead, just small ones for fun).
 
I used to ride a pony who was blind, and yes, they are fine to jump smaller stuff. Especially as a previous pony, she would have figured out where her legs are by now...

the pony I rode had a tendancy to look at it sideways to judge it better...and then straighten up. The distance thing can get a bit confused with the eye missing, but easy I would expect to learn.
 
We had a horse at livery who supposedly went blind in one eye (although I'm not convinced), but the vet said not to jump him anymore because he wouldn't be able to judge distances very well?

Anyway, his owner carried on jumping him anyway - and he was fine!
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Like I say I'm not convinced he was actually blind in it though..

He was an older, established jumper though, might be a bit hard/dangerous to try and teach your horse?
 
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if she was a polo pony then she must have been schooled !

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I'm sure she was at some point but after rotting in a field for 2 years she seems to have memory loss!

The fact that she hasn't done it before is what was worrying me since her depth perception can't be good without the eye. I don't want to end up with her knocking herself. If she had jumped before then she could prob just wing it but learning from scratch is more difficult
 
If she has had one eye for a while she will have worked out her depth perception by now. I know i lost my eye myself. Only takes a few months for your brain to realise youve only one eye!!!
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I would obviously try small jumps first but maybe make some out of drain pipe etc so they are really light, if she knocks herself them she wont frighten herself. you can only try and see how she goes. You just have to think about your approach to the jumps i.e. head on and not from the side but there is no reason why she cant try!!!
 
My friend's pony had one eye. He had come via a PC home so had already done jumping, but here are a few things that we found out the hard way that might help:

He tilted his head slightly on the approach for a better look but then jumped it happily so let her do that
He preferred straight bar jumps to cross poles (unless very low) - if you can only see one side, I guess a sloping pole could be difficult to judge?
He was never happy jumping as the light deteriorated - a no-brainer really but it was easy to forget he only had one eye!
He would never jump ditches - maybe too worried that it might get wider the blind side?!
Narrow fences also not keen on - obviously you wouldn't start over one but if you went to a competition with one then be prepared and approach steadily
Also in jump-offs, no point cutting corners on the side that was blind and expecting him to jump something he had only seen for a split second! Again v obvious, but easily forgotten in the excitement of the ring.

As he got older, he seemed to lose confidence, and used to stop before every jump, just the once, have a good look and then do it. So they sensibly called it a day at that point. But he jumped for about 2-3 years quite happily, won quite a few rosettes, and thoroughly enjoyed himself. So worth a try?!
 
You could try loose jumping him first.....................

Some proper show jumpers up the road from me bred one with only one useful eye. They ride at top level and deal in high class horses and wouldn't keep a donkey, but this horse would jump anything for them.
 
i used to jump a x racer with one eye did a few local shows and we even tryied xc he loved it! takes a bit for u both to trust each other (you have to get use to the horse going in on slight angle ect) but they get use to it and mine enjoyed him self! lose jumping good idea gives u time to see how the horse will go in the jump and prepre your self before getting on.

hope this helps!
 
I had a pony with one eye. It was a fab jumper and jumped everything! It loved it. It would come up to the fence straight but on landing land on a slight angle? this was never a problem though. Just give the pony plenty of time before the fence so he can have a look and they work the rest out themselves. Remember they will look for confidence in you, so make sure you confident.
 
i recon she'd be fine- thers a grade B showjumper did upto 1.30m with one eye at my yard at college... he lost it as a 3yr ols... he just cant turn too tightly off the side with no eye into a jump and theres another at the yard that lost it at 6,,, shes really crazy and jumps... xxxx
 
Mine is blind in one eye and jumps fine
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I do wonder about her depth perception as she sometimes gives her fences too much room, but that's not really a problem
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