From: Saf
Hi I'm 14yo and have my own horse and just recently he seams to be spoking at every thing. Like a long patch of grass waving, plastic bags, a piece of paper half buried and not moving on the ground. The most recent incident was when i was in the dam and he saw something (i do not know what) and he reared slipped and fell he was unhurt but very shaken i don't know what to do. He is a great horse and up until now he has been fearless horse. He also refuses to jump anything colourful. It all started suddenly and I don't know what happened to him. I am beginning to be a bit scared to get on him as I often fall of when he shies. Please help me I don't want this to get any worse. >From Saf
Ring your veterinarian, explain what is going on, and ask him to take a look at your horse. Then, if he can't find anything obviously wrong - a lesion, an infection, or a scar, for instance - ask for a referral to a good veterinary hospital with a resident opthalmologist. Eyes are a very specialized subject, and they are also very delicate organs, especially in equines. The equine eye is particularly susceptible to injury and infection, and there is no such thing as a "generic" treatment. Don't use any ointment containing belladonna unless you are in a position to keep the horse out of direct sunlight (in his stall, for instance); don't use any ointment containing steroids unless you are absolutely certain that there is no cut or other lesion in the eye itself. Using the wrong medications can make things worse instead of better, and you can't afford to take a chance with your horse's vision.
On that note, there are really two types of physical problem that should always be considered "RED ALERT!" situations when a horse is involved: one is colic and the other is any sort of eye problem. Don't wait a day or two or three to have an eye injury seen by the vet, and don't hesitate to trailer the horse to a specialist. It's much better to hear "Oh, this isn't a big problem, here's something that should clear it up in a few days", than to hear "Oh dear, if you'd brought him in a few days ago we might have been able to save the eye."
In your case, I wouldn't ride the horse until you have a better idea of what is going on with him. Do you have a safe place to turn him out and let him exercise himself? Just for safety's sake, inspect the turnout paddock or field carefully and ask yourself "If I blindfolded a horse and turned it out here, could it trip over or get caught in anything?" Don't count on the horse's ability to see and avoid anything that shouldn't be in the field - anything, from a broken bit of fencing to a piece of old farm machinery, could be dangerous. Mind you, these things would be potentially dangerous to ANY horse, but especially so to a horse that can't see them, or can't see them well.
In the meantime, whilst you are waiting for the vet, do some detective work. Find out whether there has been any other change recently - perhaps a dietary one? Horses that suddenly begin spooking at everything are sometimes not vision-impaired (although one should still have that checked) but feed-impaired; to a horse on a normal diet, a piece of paper may be worth no more than a glance or a single step sideways, but to a horse that is suddenly being stuffed with protein, a glimpse of that same piece of paper may cause an equine version of the Macarena. If you aren't the one who feeds the horse, it may be a good idea to be around at feeding time just to see whether his diet has changed drastically. I've had that experience myself, long ago when I was boarding a mare at a very nice barn; the person who usually fed the horses was replaced by another person, and this new person didn't pay much attention to the instructions on the various feed cards. In one week, my mare went from sweet and cooperative to a nervous, aggressive creature who spent altogether too much time on her hind legs. It took me almost two weeks to figure out that her feed was at fault, because she didn't get fat. When I discovered, quite by accident, that she was being fed ten pounds of alfalfa and five pounds of sweet feed instead of her usual ration of grass hay and a handful of whole oats, I was horrified, and saw to it that she was put back on her proper ration. One week later, calm was restored, and she was once again friendly and sweet, and had remembered how to move about on four legs instead of two.
By the way, you are right to worry about falling off - it's something that sensible riders try to avoid. Riding is a risky sport, but there's no reason to take completely unncessary chances. Whatever is going on with your horse, the result is that he is, at present, dangerous to ride. If you don't ride your horse whilst you are waiting to have his eyes checked, you're not being a coward, you're being intelligent and acting like a horseman.
Jessica
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