Showing question

[missk]

My pony needs to have her eye removed due to a tumour. Obviously she will take time to adjust but being on a small yard I have no worries there. My question is does anyone have any experience of how horses/ ponies cope with competing, she only does local shows. It was more the showing side as my daughter shows the pony and wondered if judges would see this as a major no no, although her overall condition is very good.

 

[cornbrodolly]

Have seen county level one eyed horses - shouldnt make much difference - manners and conformation & paces, and turnout will count for much more. Best of luck!

 

[ruth83]

Shouldn't make any difference.

If you PM Janette on here, she has experience of eye removal with her horse - who she also shows. There are some pics of her horse here:
http://horseridinginstructor.yolasite.com/services.php

With regards the adjustment - if the removal is due to a tumour on/in the eye, chances are that her vision is limited already and she will find the adjustment much easier than you expect.

 

[missk]

Thanks for replying, turns out its worse than we thought. Last November the pony had squamous cell carcinoma in her eye, took her to RVC where they operated to remove the tumour, and managed to keep the eye and said all should be fine just have it checked by a vet every 3 months. In May my daughter noticed a small lump had come up on the ponies nose so the vet took a biopsy and turns out the carcinoma had returned travelling down the nose and into the bone. The RVC have been really good and as the surgeons there have never seen a case like this before have gone all out to keep us informed. As shes not in any pain our choices are to have her eye removed, surgery to remove bone from her nose and four courses of radiotherapy to start with, or leave alone and within 6 months she will start to feel pain and we can asses the situation again. We have been told she will also have extensive facial disfigurement. As shes only 16 we have decided to go for the op as long as she isn't in pain and is happy after the op we really don't mind what she looks like. She has been such an honest pony and has always looked after my daughter that I feel she deserves a chance.