Do we know if horses get burry vision?

[Jesstherider]

The stable I ride with has a 17 year old school master. I rode him a couple years ago when I was really focusing on my equitation. I can’t compliment this horse enough but he is not the type of horse I enjoy riding. He is worth his weight in gold. When you need to work on anything with your jumping and not worry about the horse, this is the guy. If you leave him alone he will always find the perfect spot. He is just so consistent and wonderful.

My trainer asked a couple days ago if I would like to do a tune up ride on him for my lesson. I do this a lot with her and I really enjoy everything I learn from it. But to be honest I thought it was more of a tune up ride for me this time than the horse.

He just came off a two week break that they do with their school horses often. She told me as we were walking out to the arena that he had been extra lazy recently and he is not enjoying his job anymore. And he did seem a little disconnected as I was tacking him up. He has always been one of those geldings that just loves being with people. But while we were tacking up he was not paying any attention to us at all.

Anyways, we get out and do the warm up. He tried to cut the ring a couple times. Otherwise, he was fine.

When we started on the poles was when I noticed the biggest difference. He was very cautious coming up to the poles, really sucking back. The first time thru he came to a walk and looked down at them like it was his first time going over. I gave him a longer approach so I could get more of a trot out of him and he did fine. As soon as I changed to a shorter approach (we are trotting) about 10 steps out, same thing he would suck back to a slow jog and carefully step over them. I gave him some space to do this and approaching to the left was better than the right. If I really asked him and supported him he would do it perfectly. This started the conversation on whether this is a result of working with so many beginners or is something else going on.

We tested it further and set up a 2’ line with 5 strides. This was something that he has always enjoyed and excelled at doing. Remember this was the horse that if you left him alone he would find his spot. So that is how I first approached the line. He is a hunter so I used the whole ring and gave him a good approach and as we approached the first jump he sucked back about 3 strides out and popped over. Broke to a trot inbetween and popped the second jump. Watching the video back it looks like he is turning his head slightly as he approaches. Second time thru I collected him on a circle and really supported on circle until I felt he was relaxed and then approached the fence. He was hanging on the bit a little and I think that is the result of him turning his head to look, so I left him alone with my hands and rode aggressively with my seat and legs. He still shortened a little and chipped the second jump.

About the 4th time down the line we had worked it out and had a very smooth line. We ended there and I cooled him down by walking the trail.

There is nothing in his eyes to indicate there is an issue that we can see. When I was a kid we had a POA that was blind in one eye but you would have never had known if it wasn’t for the cloudy eye.

What do you guys think? I have never really thought about a horse having blurry vision or being near or far sighted but it makes sense.

[hoopoe]

Certainly early cataracts might be in play. You would not necessarily see them without proper equipment.

At 17 there are a whole raft of issues I would think about before eyes.

This old friend may need a good vet work up including blood work

[Jesstherider]

I have some more information but as I asked this question as an opportunity to learn for me, what are your top three other causes?

[Renn_aissance]

In addition to cataracts, as we (horses and humans!) age, the pupil becomes slower to expand and contract. If the lighting in your ring leads to bright and dark spots, this fellow’s eyes may not be processing the change in light very well, which can make it harder for him to process what he’s seeing. Depth perception also deteriorates with age.

If you want a left field option, if this is a Cushings horse, it is possible for the pituitary tumors to press on the optic nerve and impede vision.

I second the thought of getting this fellow a comprehensive workup. There’s a lot that could be going on here. I’d think harder about the eyes if I noticed changes in his behavior on the ground (turning his head to look at things, increased spooking or startling, apparent loss of proprioception.) From what I understand, a lot of eye stuff is difficult to assess in the field, and needs a special opthalmology workup at a vet hospital. Starting with the horse’s overall physical condition might give you better answers.

[IPEsq]

This may sound weird, but I rode a horse that went through a phase like this, and it turned out to be a sore stifle.

[BostonHJ]

I agree that this sounds like a horse that maybe has some arthritis or other soreness going on that is trying to be a good boy but doesn’t feel great jumping. Any head tilt you think you see I feel like is associated with him looking for options besides the jump. I would start with a lameness workup before an eye exam.

[JBCool]

I agree with BostonHJ and others that there could be a lot of factors at play here. BUT, in answer to your specific question, I had asked my vet the same curiosity question about vision issues with my spooky horse and it is a bit of “we don’t know what we don’t know” situation. Because their eyes function differently from ours, things like astigmatism and near/far sightedness aren’t really possibilities. However, we can’t ask them to read the eye chart, so we don’t really have any way of testing it further other than looking for structural abnormalities or injuries. I later sold the horse (after plenty of searching for other issues) to a different job because he obviously didn’t want to do this one, for reasons only he knew.

[Jesstherider]

That is what I thought. They have decided to take him later this month to have his eyes checked, but like you said we just might not know for sure. Regardless he will have a home where is for the rest of his life. He is the owners favorite horse and when she is upset she goes and sits in the stall with him. I have no doubt they will always do right by him.

[Jesstherider]

I’m not saying we have totally ruled out soreness, because on the other side of this he showed 3’ all summer and schooled 3’3" at home. In the fall he moved back to being a school horse and was jumped 2’ to 2’6” consistently.

This is the owners favorite horse. She bought him as a two year old and trained him and showed him. Then her daughters showed him. She absolutely adores this horse and he gets the best treatment. I’m November he started not being himself. Same kind of stuff I was talking about above, so they had a vet come check for arthritis and there was nothing to note.

He has a special saddle just for him. They had the saddle fitter come out and check the fit. She said there is no soreness in his back. I also ran my hands down his back and it was fine.

There is no heat or swelling.

Also, when I was riding him I started with my normal warm up which is more dressage focused. I had him stretch on 20 meter circle both ways in all his gates. Then we collected and did a little shoulder in/ shoulder out haunches in/ haunches out. Then we did a few transitions and worked on adjusting his stride/ lead changes. Other than trying to cut the ring and slowing down at the gate once, he was perfect.

There was no signs at this point of any discomfort. It was not until I went to do the poles that he started to act different. The more I think about it being a depth perception issue the more it makes sense to me. It was literally like he was not sure how far the poles were away. And I am convinced that it was the exact same point every time I could feel his body shift. But once he knew I had his back and was going support him and help him find the right spot, there was no longer an issue.

What it really feels like to me was there was this horse when I was younger that came thru the auctions and I picked up. He was about 9 or 10. They told me he had too many buttons and they did not know what to do with him. And that was true; he was at least a 4th level dressage horse. I decided to teach him to jump and he picked it up quickly. Then one day we tripped and fell into the jump. After that he was so nervous and cautious every approach and then would land and celebrate (typical gelding). It felt just like that. Like he might have had an incident with a jump and now he’s worrying it will happen again. Which again with him it feels like pain on one side but it wasn’t consistent and did not get worse. It got better.

Anyways, it’s not my call but I know he will get the best treatment. It just made me start thinking about how do we know if horses have blurry vision.

Also, he not that old you guys. Not for him. He might be old for some horses but he is in the prime of his life. This horse is going to be one of those horses that lives well into his late 20s. He still has such great muscling and his back looks great. I don’t think he has even ever had a major injury (knock on wood). I bet he could still go walk into the derby ring and clean up. They have always done right by this horse.

Anyways they are having his eyes checked later this month and he is going to have another break until they are checked in case he did pull something and needs some time.

[phantomhorse]

Are you in an area where Lyme is possible? One of my horses first presented with Lyme by being lookier than normal at things that shouldn’t have bothered him.

[Mander]

@Jesstherider

It just made me start thinking about how do we know if horses have blurry vision.

Strictly speaking, horses DO have blurry vision. Their eyesight is not nearly as good as ours just as a baseline. Their depth perception is also terrible in comparison to our own. At a distance which the human eye can detect a difference of depth by 1/8", a horse can only detect a difference of something like 9".

This is a fairly interesting simulation of equine vision.

[Ponyplusaninch]

This was fascinating! Also this video came up right after which I found equally interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAfk4QL1RzU

[Jesstherider]

Yes we are. Actually I just went thru a whole thing myself with Texas lone star tick disease. My friends horse years ago started to go blind and the vet said it was from deer urine. I’ve never asked again if that is true or not.

[cilla1]

My older horse can’t see very well, I couldn’t see anything weird in his eyes. Vet checked him and found he has Cushing, he’s starting Pergolide next monday, let’s hope he’ll gain some sight back

[phantomhorse]

@Jesstherider

My friends horse years ago started to go blind and the vet said it was from deer urine. I’ve never asked again if that is true or not.

If your friend’s horse was suffering from leptospirosis, that is indeed transmitted by the urine of wildlife. It can cause uveitis which can cause blindness if it gets bad enough.

[Tini_Sea_Soldier1]

That’s super interesting. I had an older TB that was blind in both his eyes by the time he was about 19 or 20. He was already retired and lived for another year or 2 that way. I had never heard the urine factor as a reasoning, but certainly a possibility given some of the areas and the large deer population. I had always thought that it was the fact that he had some pretty heavy meds from a severe injury in his early teens and that it eventually caught up with him or that he had some weird effects from Cushings or EPM that caused uveitis.