One-eyed horse

From: Kerry Wilson

Hello Jessica-

Don't know if you remember my emails that you answered about a year ago retraining a Western (reining) horse to English and the problems that we were encountering.

Well, we took your advice and found ourselves a good dressage instructor and we now find ourselves in the situation where we'll be ready to start showing at training level in a month or two. My mare Bo has come on a long, long way in a short period of time (less than a year) and I'm really proud of her.

Now for the bad news- Bo has suffered for a number of years from Uveitis in her left eye. Well things are about as bad as they can get now and despite continuous aggressive treatment they eyeball itself has started to shrink and she has lost all sight in this eye. For about at least six months she has been working with practically nil vision in this eye and it is getting to the stage where if the eye continues to shrink at the rate it has started then it will have to be removed.

To watch her work and be so capable and with such a willing attitude you would not guess that she had vision on only her right side. She is a mare truly worth her weight in gold.

I have no plans to stop working her at dressage even though she's only partially sighted (I prefer to think of her as partially sighted rather than partially blind) but I would like some other opinions as to whether this is the right thing to do - and if so, are there are any special consider- ations I must make (I am starting to handle her from her off-side now as this is the side with vision etc. but I am wondering if there are any major things I should be thinking about ?)

Also, she is still - despite all of this - an absolutely solid trail horse with whom I have many wonderful hours of fun with.

Finally, when the eye is removed I am thinking of having a glass eye put in. My vet has explained about this to me but I am wondering how "lifelike" these really are to look at and if you have any experience of them that you can share (good or bad) ?

Thanks so much -Kerry & Bo.

You can teach her new words -- she knows "walk" and "trot" and "canter" and "whoa", and probably "back" and "over". Teach her things that she'll need to know later: "step UP" and "step DOWN" and "right" and "left". Teach her that "step" means "take one step, then wait", so that you can have her take one or two or five steps calmly, waiting after each one. Do this forward and backward -- again, you are preparing her, and yourself, for the future.

I do understand why you want to think of her as partially sighted, but I truly think that you and she will both be better off if you start, right now, thinking in terms of part-blind and eventually blind. Uveitis isn't called "recurring" for nothing -- it comes back, it comes back again, and again, and it changes sides. You're more than likely to end up with a blind horse -- but blindness doesn't have to end her life or her career. You can prepare for it, and you can deal with it. Start planning, and acting, NOW, for the day when she will be entirely blind.

Put her in the stall that she can keep forever -- her stall should not be changed when she loses her sight. Neither should her turnout area, or conditions -- NOW is the time to get her used to her turnout paddock or field, so that she can learn where the fences are, and the water tank, and the gate, and the low and high spots. Does she share the field with others? Try not to subtract horses, and if you're going to add a horse to her group, do it NOW. You won't want to do it when she's lost her sight. The same applies to any changes in the physical environment -- if you're planning to replace a fence, gate, water tank, or even change the location of the salt lick, do it NOW.

Now for the pep talk -- you've obviously got a great horse and a wonderful attitude, and you've certainly picked the right discipline. I know of several one-eyed and blind horses that do beautifully in dressage. One horse belonged to an old instructor of mine, and they continued to compete in dressage for more than ten years after he lost his sight completely. And they didn't just compete -- they did very well. She could take him anywhere -- he trailered well, knew the dressage arena for what it was, and trusted his rider implicitly -- and this last is really the key to maintaining a blind horse in work.

One of my local students has a horse that has already lost one eye to a combination of uveitis and glaucoma, and the vision in his other eye is going. We all know that it's only a matter of time until he is completely blind. He's being converted from an eventer to a full-time dressage horse, and he's doing very well. He's nineteen now -- he could easily be a dressage horse for the next ten years. ;-) He's a little more nervous about strange sounds, and about things coming past him from behind, but he trusts his rider completely -- and she is his ONLY rider. No one else will ever ride this horse again. We've been teaching him everything I suggested above, and he will now turn right or left on the leadrope when you tell him to, and take one step at a time, after a halt, when he's told "step". When he goes out to play, he occasionally misjudges and crashes into the fence -- so there are occasional scratches and scrapes, but so far it seems better than confining him to a stall full-time. His owner wants him to have a happy life, and as long as he's happy, she's happy -- and if a time comes when he can no longer have a happy life, she'll be a responsible owner and have him put down. But this should be true for any owner and any horse, blind or sighted.

Re the artifical eye -- it's really something that's between you and your veterinarian. My personal opinion is that unless you are really determined to have your horse wear an artificial eye, I would say "Don't do it" -- or at least, before you make up your mind, talk to your vet about the pros and cons. The pros are all cosmetic -- the cons have to do with health. There are artificial eyes that look real, and there are prosthetics that can be used to "pad out" the socket under sewn-together eyelids. Most vets will tell you that there is less chance of later problems within the socket, including post-surgical infection, if nothing foreign is added, and the lids are simply sewn together. It's not as disfiguring as you might think.

Good luck!

Jessica

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