My horse has cataracts and he is pushing 20. He is looking more and more at the ground and afraid of shadows while riding. I’m wondering if anyone has had any success with a face mask or “sunglasses” that helped with the glare? Also, did you find that your horse preferred being ridden alone in the arena? Thank you!
I had a horse with cataracts in one eye and was blind in the other. She came to depend heavily on a pasture mate as her guide. She always was on the other horse’s left side, close to her. She could be ridden as long as her friend was with her. Without her friend beside her, she was extremely unsure, unless in her stall. She felt safe there.
Look up the masks etc they use for uveitis in horses. There are a ton of different options. My gelding is sensitive in one eye, but it doesn’t seem to be recurrent uveitis, I think it was from a long ago injury. I’ve purchased really good UV protection fly masks ever he had a flare and it makes a huge difference.
You can also get goggles - like sunglasses - for when you ride, though I haven’t gone there.
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My last driving pony developed cataracts. He had been nearly bombproof, and suddenly started spooking at stuff he’d seen hundreds of time. Our vet said it was cataracts. I retired him because I no longer felt he was safe to drive. He didn’t mind at all because he was incredibly lazy, with zero work ethic. He lived for several years after that, and did fine even when I sold my horse property and started boarding him. He lived at two different places after retirement because we moved long distance. He seemed to acclimate to each new place pretty easily.
Rebecca
I have the sunglasses. So glad I got them, they work great.
Yes cataracts do create more glare due to the way they bounce/refract the light as it passes through the lens. However, keep in mind that cataracts also make vision blurry. You can give a UV fly mask a try but it may or may not help the fact that vision is blurry. Certainly always make sure it is off in low-light conditions (dusk - dawn) as that would likely make vision more difficult.
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If he’s otherwise healthy they can remove them. They do a similar surgery to what humans get done. It’s not cheap, but what I was quoted wasn’t too terrible either. I was told they could do it standing but she needed to go to the equine hospital for a sterile dust free environment. They would do one eye at a time.
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