I hate to say it, but it looks like my mare is gonna lose her left eye. For about two weeks it’s just been horrible and the vet is at a loss. She’s been treated for at least two different things (and these treatments also crossover with treatments for other things) and nothing. So as the vet said there’s a good chance she could lose her eye, she just doesn’t know to what. I can tell she already can’t see well on the left now, she’s been bumping into me and will jump a little if there’s a sudden noise on that side that she would otherwise ignore. So, if this does happen, is there anything I need to do differently in terms of care and handling? If I treat her pretty much the same (other than taking into account she can’t see on the left side) will she be fine or would I need a new approach to things? I’m probably overthinking this, but I needed some advice. Thanks guys!
A childhood horse I rode/cared for had his eye removed from advanced squamous cell carcinoma. Since him, I’ve cared for quite a few other one-eyed horses.
There’s not a lot you need to do differently; horses are incredibly resilient sometimes, and this would be one of those times. I would keep her routine consistent and make a point to vocally let your horse know when you’re approaching her blind side.
My childhood horse was like a new animal when he had his eye removed. When his vision was obscured from the cancer, he was spooky and jumpy at noises, shadows, etc. (That was the reason he was in my care, the spookiness was too much for his adult owner at the time-- I was a fearless kid who bounced) With the bad eye removed, he was practically bombproof. I rode him all over creation: trails, shows, jumping, barrel racing, you name it. The others I did not know when they had both eyes, but were no different than any other horse.
This coming April will be two years since my Irish Sport Horse lost sight in his left eye. He had a blunt trauma sometime in the early morning hours (we think he hit a post) and split the globe of his eye. After a round of antibiotics, ointments, a protective mask, etc he was cleared for work. Two weeks after being cleared he was jumping again in the arena and a few months after he went XC again.
My gelding is 20 yrs old and fairly sensible. He had little to no trouble transitioning at all. He’s so good about it that I forget he can’t see on that side. If I come up quietly I tend to startle him but otherwise he’s been fine. I still lead and mount from the left. He has had some cases where he’ll bump into the mounting block and spook. That’s the worse we’ve had.
Most horses I’ve known or heard about have no trouble transitioning. You may have to do some extra desensitizing on that side to accustom her to a limited vision field. I find that ground work over poles and obstacles to build up the confidence helps as well.
Adding more: I’m thinking back to my childhood horse, and I remember exactly one time when missing an eye created a problem, and I was with that horse for a lot of years.
It probably a year after he had his eye out and I had him on cross ties. A blanket hanging on a stall door on his blind side slipped to the floor and fell. It was a slow slide to the floor as the blanket unfolded off the rack, so you could hear the nylon rubbing against the door on the way down.
I don’t think he could see it at all and also couldn’t process what the noise was. He flew back and broke the cross ties. But when I got him calmed down and walked him over to the blanket on the floor, you could almost see the light bulb go off in his head like, “oh, that’s all that was,” as if he was processing it for future reference.
That is literally the only issue I can recall in many years. When I went off to college and wasn’t around to ride him, his person lent him a beginner lesson program. It’s worth noting, he was a TB, not something inherently stoic by breeding.
When the kids were little, we had a one-eyed Shetland stud. His orb had imploded due to an injury. He was your typical ornery Shetland and unless you worked with him, or looked closely at his eye, you would never have known. The kids rode him just fine, and at a playday, he would generally do practice well, and buck them off in the event itself.
On lunge, he would keep a “braille” sort of tension when his bad eye was toward me, and there would be noticable slack when his good eye was on me. In pasture, he was kept with a QH gelding, and was totally the Boss Hoss.
Your horse will go through a bit of adjustment, and then be just fine.
I love, love, love those “lightbulb” moments! Once, we took the pony to the mountains and DH was felling some trees for pole logs and we were using him to pull them. At first, he felt the pressure of the log, and stopped, then with encouragement, the lightbulb went off, and then the little man was pulling for all he was worth. Looked like he was having a blast doing something new!
My mare just had her right eye removed after months treating an injury, and the same thing happened. The partial vision and pain is so much worse for them than having the eye removed. My mare is doing great 
we are about 2 weeks out and she is getting around wonderfully and loving her hand walks She still does her ground tricks, come, back, and hug, both sides. I am going to work with her on standing still at the mounting block, and then try riding
Similar to the previous posters I had a small pony as a child. For two years he fought with his moon blindness (Uveitis), eventually we removed the eye as the vet felt that it was too painful. I wish we had of done it sooner. That pony dumped me at some many jumps when he still had the eye. Once it was removed he was totally different, for the better. I don’t remember ever doing anything differently.
We retired him from showing and he became the first pony for several other little girls, when he was 20 he went back to his breeders to retire.
We have a horse with one eye- removed after an injury - you should expect everything from them you expect from a two eyed horse! They do great!
Talk to your horse when you are around her. She’ll adapt well to having only one eye. Just don’t startle her by approaching her without talking to her. When any living being loses the ability to see,s he compensates with more sensitivity to touch and hearing… So losing an eye will make your horse listen and feel to touch better. Touch her and talk to her when you are around her.
