Blindness

By Claire McCann

Your news

26 March 2009 13:26

I bought a chestnut gelding 3years, he is 14hs and was aged approx at 8 yrs old. I had him on a 3 month trial before i purcashed him, during the trial period i fell off about 5 to 6 times. Firstly he would circle around you when you were trying to get on and then when you did get on he would take off before you had chance to get your feet in the stirrups then hey presto i would fall off.

After trying numerous things like sending him away to be schooled & employing someone to ride him, i was evenutally able to get on and ride him without him ditching me.

But there was something nigling in the back of my mind and most people that i mentioned it too thought i was a nuerotic owner. On his left eye he has a blue line going through it and i was certain that he had a sight problem, but i had the vet check his back, his teeth, eyes etc when he first started ditching me but they said everything was fine.

I started riding out with Abi and she is a vet nurse who has owned horses for years, & i was telling her what he used to do and how he spookys & jumps in the air and sideways. Then i was telling her about his eye and she had look at it & said it might be worth me going to see her old boss James as he is an animal opthermist.

So i booked an appointment & off we went. When we got to the vets he asked me why i thought there was someting wrong so i explained. James got a special eye camera and started taking pictures, Bart jumped when the camera went off and we thought that maybe it was the noise of the camera, but James said it wasnt and switched the flash off and clicked the camera Bart didnt move. It turned out that Bart had no sight in his left eye but he did get light flashs which caused him to spook jump etc.

I was told to get a UV mask for the field to protect both eyes and to try & get a mask that covered his left eye completely.

Getting the UV mask was easy, the hard part was getting a mask that covered the whole eye and blacked out any light. I evenutally got one thanks to Gibson Saddlery and they turned it round really quickly for me.

Since having the mask Bart isnt as spooky and it does make a difference to his quality of life. Plus since having the mask the amount of people that stop & ask me why either when out riding out at local shows is unreal. It amazing.

My only wish is to try & find him a mask in a more breatheable fabric for the summer. If we lived in america it wouldnt be a problem.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Kind Regards

Claire