Looks like I’m late to the party and this may be a moot point, but I own a horse with a cataract in his R eye. It’s small, was discovered during an ophthalmic exam for another reason, and does not seem to affect him. I knew about it from when the ophthalmologist examined his L eye for a corpora nigra cyst, but completely forgot because it’s such a non-issue. I know if I sold this horse, I’d completely forget to disclose it, considering that I completely forgot it even existed for a few years.
We “re-discovered” it during an exam for an eosinophilic keratitis on the L eye 3 years later. The ophthalmologist said that given his age (11 at time of first discovery) and how the cataract looked, it was likely from trauma when he was young- he’s an ex-racehorse, so the prevailing theory is that he whacked it loading in the gate or god knows what.
Horse is successful as a preliminary event horse. He’s a spooky mo fo, but is fairly honest and I think the spookiness is more from being an intelligent little turd and a high strung OTTB, as he’s never given me a reason to be concerned about his visual capabilities. Even the corpora nigra cyst didn’t seem to affect him, but I had it lasered because I could.
