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Horse Care and Comfort

Night blindness

By:

tickleandsqueeze

Date:

2010-Oct-21 at 08:17AM

my horse has just been diagnosed with this, what are other peoples experiences of this? hes 3 years old and will eventually be for western riding, the vet has doubts about this but during daylight hours there are no signs or symptons.
during night time he becomes very dependant on me.
hes in at night for his safety and my peace of mind. but any pieces of info will be gratefully received.

Anna

mssmith599 2010-Oct-22 at 01:21AM

My dad had eye issues for a long time. He had trouble with the sunlight, so we gat very dark sunglasses. He had trouble in low light so we had small torches for dinner out. We tried to do for him the things that would help him. You have done the things that your horse needs now. Safe at night when he could be hurt, and doing what he can in the daylight hours. Bravo!!!!! My dad had issues with his vivion for 30 years and died still reding books.

tickleandsqueeze 2010-Nov-29 at 02:54PM

interesting. ive found a person who has trained a partially sighted horse and once the specialist checks him out on the 15th December we will know which way will be forward. hopefully.

i have been told about a horse in the western world that is totally blind and doing the shows so there is hope, particularly as this horse is unusual, as in he really wants to be with you not away from you. Or maybe thats the illness causing that.

palomino4475 2010-Nov-29 at 04:14PM

We cared for an old Appaloosa for several years that went completely blind. At first he could discern light and darkness, so he could find his way into the barn, but he eventually lost all his sight. He coped really well, and loved to be ridden since that was the only time he could really move out. He totally trusted the rider to not crash him into things. We also had some goats that he would follow around. Kind of like seeing eye dogs...
I would suggest that if you think your horse is going to go totally blind that you start working with him to respond to voice commands - the ones we used were "step" for going uphill or stepping over something and "easy" for going downhill. It's also very important to talk to him a lot so that he knows where you are and what you're doing. I hope this helps!