My horse was kicked in the head by another horse in the pasture next to him. It was a full blow to the head. He is now blind in his left eye. This only happened last Saturday so he is still adjusting. My question is what do I need to do to help him adjust and what changes do I need to make myself? He is 30 yrs old. I am going to put him in private turnout once he adjusts to the loss of sight in one eye since the herd environment wouldn’t be good for him. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you
Other than being sure to approach him from his good side, and being careful and patient handling him, I don’t think you need to do much. Most horses adjust really well. If it was a freak thing, I wouldn’t necessarily put him on solo turnout. He should still be ok in a group, or with a quieter buddy.
1 Like
I’m sorry for your horse.
Was the eye removed? Is the eye still mobile? (able to close/open properly)
For now, I wouldn’t put him with other horses until he heals but afterward, he won’t have any problems being in a paddock with other horses. Horses usually adjust well to one eye vision.
Just make sure not to put him with agressive/rough playing horses.
Build him a head-bumper!
I made one for my horse, which was basically pool noodles cut up and electrical-taped to his halter so he had a “bumper”. He often hit his head off the wall/stall/anything in the beginning because he had no idea how close things where.
He will probably adjust fine to losing vision in one eye, and should be able to go out with the herd once he’s healed. I had one blind in one eye. I had to lead him from the off side, since he was blind in his left eye, and anxious about me being on that side while leading. I also had to be careful not to “sneak up” on that side and startle him. He never had any problems with my other horses, and lived this way happily for several years until going blind in the second eye, which he did not adjust to well at all.
Please do not keep hm by himself forever! He will get depressed and perhaps pine himself to death. He is used to having friends — he needs them.
Even right now he could benefit from a buddy. Is there one horse who would not be rough with him? Often other horses will sense that their friend needs help and guidance and that horse will help him find his way around. To me, keeping him alone now or later is the sadder of all the choices you could make.
1 Like
I had one that went blind in one eye. It was a gradual thing for him, but I handled him normally from both sides without issue. The extra things I did included making sure I spoke to him when approaching his blind side, and keeping a hand on him when up close so he’d know where I was.
Be vigilant leading him, taking a little closer guidance through tight spaces like doors, or past other horses. Give him confidence that he can trust you to not run him into things now and he will be able to forgive later when it happens accidentally because his handler forgot his blindness.
Be aware of what’s going on and give him the freedom to turn his head to look with his sighted eye. Mine was concerned about noises on his blind side.
Consider making a sign for his stall so the barn staff are reminded that he is blind on that side every time they go to take him out.
One of my later horses had to have one eye kept in the dark for a while so after sewing material into a flymask on that side I covered the outside of that side with duct tape, then drew a closed eye on the tape and wrote “BLIND SIDE” underneath. He was just fine in his usual small group during this time.
I think how well a horse adapts to partial (or full) blindness depends more on the individual horse’s mind than anything we do. Some just can’t make the adjustment. Many do just fine.
I strongly agree with other posters that this horse should live with at least one good buddy.
I’ve had a few one-eyed old guys, and IME, the buddy horse will often stand on the blind side and be the ‘eye’ for his companion.
He was going out with 3 other geldings - for the past 2 weeks - we just moved to this place. Before that he was out by himself because he was coming off of a major leg injury that took 1 year of stall rest to heal. He will be in a small paddock once he figures out the site thing. I don’t have another horse to go in with him. My other gelding hates him. He cant go out into the large field with the three horses because if they get to running around he wont know to get out of the way on that side I would think. Plus a large field he would have to learn where everything is again. I would love to put one other horse in with him, and there are a lot of horses at the barn but I don’t think anyone wants their horse in a private paddock with no grass just so he can have a buddy. Turnout is the least of my worries right now though. If I can find a horse to put with him I will. He will have buddies on each side of him while he is in the small paddock.
He has to learn how to get around without the sight in that eye. He is really sensitive to sound and startles easily. Yesterday he spun around twice, hit the stall wall and fell to the ground. It was pretty scary. Today he seems a little better and we are out of the 48 hour mark. The vet said he should get use to his stall and the boundaries in there before taking him outside to the small turnout.
His eye was not taken out. He still has the eye. The retina is attached and it reacts to light etc all the way to the back of the eye. He just cant see out of it for some reason.
DJohn - I did get some pool noodles and put them on his halter on the blind side so he wouldn’t hit his head when getting to close to the walls. That was a great idea.
The sign on the stall door is a good idea. He isn’t going out right now but I will do that once he starts going out again.
