Senior Horse Care Resources — Eye Care, Sight and Hearing

How this Section Works

Topics on This Page

Eye Care and Blindness   Prevention

Eye Injuries and Corneal Ulcers 

Moon Blindness, Equine Recurrent Uveitis (ERU)   

Adjusting to Blindness 

    Using Smell Cues to Communicate

    Using Touch in More Ways to Communicate

    Using Sounds and More Verbal Cues to Communicate

More Resources - Blindness 

Federal Blind Horse Transport Protection

Deafness, Hearing Loss Prevention

Combination of Conditions

Other Resources

Topics on Their Own Pages (See Table of Contents on the Left)

Del Camino has extensive experience caring for senior (age 15 and up) horses.  One of the rewards of operating a large riding academy was being able to offer well-trained horses the opportunity to retire from strenuous competition or other work, cease frequent travel, but continue to have plenty of appropriate exercise, social interaction, and affection.  Coupled with careful nutrition, farriery, and veterinary care, this environment enabled horses of many breeds trained in various disciplines to age gracefully and enjoy their golden years.

Deserving, beautiful, if only in the eyes of the owner who has shared so many trails with them, our senior horses look to us.  It is our job to maintain their quality of life.  It is our job to learn what is, and is not, an acceptable quality of life.  Lastly, it is our job to ensure they do not suffer when that quality cannot be maintained.

One of the missions of Del Camino is to help horse owners find timely information that guides them through this journey.  We want to keep our seniors as fit, as active, as contented as possible, as long as possible.  It can be done.

We dedicate our work to a few of many beloved Del Camino horses:  Freckles, who left us at age 43, Miss Cricket, who delighted children until age 38, Captain Oliver "Ollie" who fought Cushing's until age 32, and Brandy's Prince, and Smokey, both of whom had Cushing's which caused laminitis at age 26.

Thank you for having graced our lives, and taught so many people the joy of horsemanship.

How This Seniors Section Works                          (Top of Page)

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Eye Care and Blindness                                         (Top of Page)

As people and horses age, every body part is challenged to stay fit.  After years of life a few inches above the ground in a dusty or sandy dry lot paddock, or behind the tailpipes of vehicles in street traffic, or living in the bright light of desert summers or snow-covered winters, horses' eyes can suffer.  Likewise, flies drinking from the corners of horses' eyes, or worse, laying eggs there, can do some damage.  If the irritating flies don't harm your horse's eyes, then his constant rubbing can cause inflammation, and possibly infection.  If he rubs his eye against something ragged, he can poke, scratch, or cut not merely the eyelid, but the actual eye.  One bad injury, or a series of injuries and infections, can leave scars that compromise vision.  Scars can become cataracts (cloudy spots). 

Prevention                                                                                   (Top of Page)

Clean tears, dust, debris from around your horse's eyes daily.  Get rid of crusty excretions that attract flies and make your horse want to scratch or rub his eye or face.

Maintain a clean, fly-free environment for your horse.

If you cannot prevent flies completely, provide a well-fitted fly mask that will break away if it gets caught on something.  Make sure it is clean so the horse can see, and so that built up sweat and dirt on the jowl piece, noseband, browband, and poll do not rub and attract flies.

Remove the fly mask when it is not needed, to prevent sores, to inspect the condition of the horse's face and eyes, and to avoid catching it on obstacles.  For example, if your horse needs a fly mask in turnout, but not in his stall, remove it when he is in his stall.  Leaving a fly mask on 24 hours a day is inadvisable, unless it is to protect an eye that is damaged or being medicated for a specific treatment period.  Even then, remove it briefly to check everything underneath at least once daily. 

Use sterile water to gently  flush debris from a horse's eye or to soothe a dry eye.  Don't use something with other ingredients without first getting the advice of your veterinarian.

If your horse's eye is a little inflamed and teary by the time you notice it, you can use a non-steroidal opthamalic ointment to moisturize after flushing.  Never use one that contains steroids without your veterinarian's approval!  This is really important, and a common mistake.  If the ointment contains steroids, this can make a bacterial or fungal infection worse.  Since you cannot see the bacteria or fungus, you don't know whether it is there or not.  Some eye conditions are treated aggressively with steroids, but not all.  Rather than meaning well and causing unintended bad consequences, when it comes to eye treatments, get professional expertise, don't guess, or assume that what was wrong with your horse's eye two years ago is what is causing the problem now.   Never put medicine in your horse's eye that your veterinarian didn't prescribe!

If your horse will live or work in bright sunlight, or the reflected bright light of snow for long periods, use a fly mask when he is not working to protect his eyes.  This works like your sunglasses to cut the glare.

If your horse lives in a dusty dry lot paddock, or outdoors during dust storms during desert summers, use a fly mask to help keep dust and debris out of his eyes.  Don't forget to remove the fly mask at night, so he can see better and you can check his eyes and prevent rub sores from the sweaty edges of the mask.

If your horse's stall is bedded with dusty straw, shavings, or wood grindings, try not to disturb the bedding when the animal is present.  Turn your horse out while his stall is being mucked, or new bedding is added.  Not only will the workers be more efficient by not having to work around the horse, but the flying dust will have time to settle before it gets in your horse's eyes.  See our Bedding page for more tips to save money and provide a healthier environment for your horse and stable hands.

Don't use a fly mask when your horse is working, either over or under a bridle or halter - it is unsafe, as the bridle, and the bit, can be moved into a bad position, and the horse's ability to see is compromised.  Also, combined with a bridle or halter the fly mask can get wrinkles, which double the thickness of the fly mask either reducing visibility or causing rubbing and poking, but usually, it does both.  Yes, there are fly masks marketed to be worn while the horse is being ridden.  That doesn't mean they are a good idea.

Do use a fly veil or browband fringe whisk with your bridle during fly season.  A fly veil should be the right size - standard ones have ears too large for Arabians and ponies.  Both the veil and the fringe whisk are designed to keep flies away without needlessly obstructing the horse's vision or interfering with the bridle.

If you and your horse will work in an environment with flies, use a good quality fly repellent.  Wipe it around eyes, on the outside of ears, on forelock, and your horse's face.  Even though a horse will learn to shut its eyes when sprayed in the face with fly repellant, avoid this practice.  It is not pleasant, and too much chemical gets on eyelashes and eyelids too close to mucus membranes and ends up washing into his eyes themselves, where it does not belong.  Don't take shortcuts.  Besides, spraying it on your horse's face is wasteful of expensive fly spray - quite a bit of the "mist" misses the target.

If your horse has had itchy, puffy eyes for 24 hours or more, and they have not responded to a gentle sterile flush to remove the irritating speck and a gentle non-steroidal moisturizer ointment within a few hours of your first aid, don't wait a minute longer - call your veterinarian!

Eye Injuries and Corneal Ulcers                                                                 (Top of Page)

An injury to the cornea, or clear large anterior portion of the eye is called an ulcer.  An eye that has been rubbed too much can be scratched, infected, and, even if the infection is beaten, left with a scar.  That scar can affect vision, and later evolve into a cataract that further affects vision.  So take eye pain, unusual tearing, rubbing, or puffiness seriously.

Veterinary opthamalogists discuss corneal ulcers with the latest procedures:

What it is, why it is serious, and how treatment has changed in recent years:  AAEP 2008 Video Dr. Dennis Brooks Causes of Eye Injuries and Corneal Ulcers

Treatment protocol and outcome: Corneal Ulcers:  Prompt Treatment Key to Success, by Kristen Slater, DVM, November, 2009, theHorse.com

Moon Blindness, Equine Recurrent Uveitis (ERU)                    (Top of Page)

Moon blindness is the traditional common name for equine recurrent uveitis or ERU.  It is the most frequent known cause of equine blindness. Appaloosas are eight times more susceptible to moon blindness than all other breeds, and more likely to have one of the most difficult forms to treat, thus four times more likely to become completely blind eventually as a result.  One of our senior Appaloosas lived to the age of 43 without any eye problems.  The other, pictured below, had extremely high maintenance eyes and was 3/4 blind when he passed away in his thirties.  At the time of the photo he was nearly blind in his left eye.

If your senior is an Appaloosa with eye trouble, you may want to visit BlindAppaloosas.org for information specific to his breed.

However, since 1995 studies and new procedures provide horse owners with hope of getting this chronic and painful eye disorder under control.  EC Magazine

Adjusting to Blindness                                                                                     (Top of Page)

If your horse is partially or completely blind, learn some simple horsemanship techniques to help him adjust, and to help you manage his (and your) comfort and safety.  One of our most beloved, best school horses, Miss Cricket, a foundation Quarterhorse mare, took wonderful care of children until the ripe old age of 38.  She was blind in one eye from about the age of 20.  Her position was assumed by Captain Oliver (Ollie), an Appaloosa gelding, who had suffered from clogged tear ducts and equine recurrent uveitis all his life, and by 28 was half blind, by 32 he was three-quarters blind, and very dependent on his buddy and his routine, but very well adjusted.  Neither horse was spooky.  No one knew these horses were nearly blind, until we informed them, not even professional horse trainers.

I thought horses like Miss Cricket and Captain Oliver were remarkable and unusual, until I read the story of Valiant of Wellington, Florida.  I hope his story and that of his partner Jeannette Sassoon inspires you to work with your horse if his eyesight is failing.  This dressage horse suffered an infection and went completely blind.  Nevertheless, with the love and tireless dedication of his seeing-eye person over many years, Valiant eventually left the safety of his stall to be ridden again, explore mountain trails and cross a river in Wyoming, and finally compete at Fourth Level, earning a high score.  The Valiant Trust tells this remarkable story of two beings totally focused on one another, a partnership of true beauty.

Using Smell Cues to Communicate

A horse's sense of smell becomes more important when compensating for less acute vision or hearing.  Fortunately, horses have a much better sense of smell than humans.  A clever human friend can use scents as training and communication aids as well.  Lavender, peppermint, apple, nutmeg, vanilla and banana scents are fairly easy to obtain and use in a little sprayer.

Using Touch in More Ways to Communicate

Also, a blind horse becomes more dependent on its sense of touch as well as hearing. Even the vibration of a motor or vehicle felt through the ground can be distinguished by a horse and associated with an activity or particular companion.

Using Sounds and More Verbal Cues to Communicate

Hearing is the easiest sense to use to orient and work with a blind horse.

An intelligent horse can learn many verbal cues.  A Guide Horse for blind people, is chosen for exceptional intelligence, among other characteristics, and is able to learn 23 voice commands during a lengthy training process.  Later on, when your horse is completely blind, the more trained he is, the easier and safer he will be to handle, and the more secure he will feel.  Just as his sense of smell touch and hearing must take over some jobs his sight used to do, so must his intelligence and training.

TIP:  If your horse's eyesight is failing, but not yet completely gone, teach your horse many more voice commands for behaviors and movements he will need to do for routine activities:  pick up feet, come to you, stop, walk on, etc. 

TIP:  Associate clear short sounds with routine events.  Bells, triangles, and whistles come in different sizes and materials that ring at different pitches and tones.  If you keep one in a handy location that you ring or blow when it is time to go out or come in from pasture, you can train your blind horse to come to his stall door or the gate, just as the shaking of a can with pellets or grain in it can instantly capture the attention of virtually all horses, sighted and blind alike!                

Spinning Behavior in Blind Horses                                            (Top of Page)

Spinning with or without whinnying.  We observed this behavior on specific occasions, and there was always a distinct cause for the horse doing it.  From networking with other blind horse caregivers, we guesstimate that at least 50% of blind horses will spin at some time or another for similar reasons, and they had similar effective solutions.  

1. A partially blind horse's "good" eye is infected or inflamed, causing temporary complete blindness.  This is disorienting and scary.  Call your veterinarian, so the horse can be tranquilized and treated, meanwhile do everything you can to help him orient to his surroundings, his "seeing eye horse" buddy, or you, without endangering yourself.

2. A completely blind horse has suddenly lost his bearings and is disoriented, unable to smell or hear his buddies, the rails of his pen or pasture, feel the difference between shade and sun, etc.  This happened to us once when an owner of a blind horse took him from his pen to the turnout at an unusual time alone in a different turnout than usual, and walked him into the middle of it, then left.  We normally turned him out with his "seeing eye buddy" in a specific pasture at a certain time via a certain route.  Needless to say, he panicked, having no idea where he was, or where the rail was, and began spinning and screaming for his friends.  I got his friend horse, and together we went to retrieve him.  As soon as he could smell and hear his friend, he stopped spinning, focused on the smell and my constant calm voice, came to us, and we all went home, cool as cucumbers.

The spinning of a blind horse is somewhat similar to the spinning of a reiner.  One is a panic response from disorientation, the other is human-induced and considered a skill.  I wonder sometimes if the hormones released in the reiner's body are the same as those in the disoriented blind horse?  Comment 

NOTE:  Any mostly blind or completely blind horse should have a buddy "guide horse."  Horses have a natural guide instinct, and these links provided by The Guide Horse Foundation, which trains miniature horses to guide blind people, demonstrate how horses natural instincts allow them to guide both blind people and blind horses.

More Resources                                                                                   (Top of Page)

Federal Blind Horse Transport Protection                                 (Top of Page)

If you are ever at or pass by an auction or feedlot that is a way station for horses to be transported to slaughter, and see a blind horse, please take a few minutes to be a good citizen.  If you are reading this, you care about your blind horse, and have compassion for other blind horses.  So we ask this in their name.

In America it is illegal to transport blind horses as part of the living cargo, because of their extreme vulnerability in these conditions, extreme distress, and some blind horses in such circumstances can become aggressive toward other horses causing injuries, or even a trailering accident.   (The law does not apply to horses blind only in one eye.)  Unfortunately, having the law does not prevent the problem - one of the last horses about to be slaughtered at the Cavel plant in Illinois when it closed was a blind pregnant mare who  delivered her foal after trailering back.  Happy ending, instead of going on to Canada, they were both rescued. 

The presence of a blind horse in these situations is not rare.

The APHIS is supposed to administer and enforce the law, but they have virtually no enforcement personnel.  Also, the law only pertains to commercial shippers hauling more than 20 horses, who also do farming, ranching, animal agriculture work besides hauling horses, such as hauling cattle or pigs or sheep to slaughter.  FSIS USDA part of the 1996 Farm Bill, which prohibits the shipment for the purpose of slaughter horses unfit to travel, which they define as:

"This rule prohibits the commercial transport to slaughter of equines that are not found fit to travel under Sec. 88.4(a)(3)(vii).This rule also requires that the equines be provided food, water, and rest for the 6 hours immediately prior to transport under Sec. 88.4(a)(1). We believe that these regulations will prevent most animals with point-of-origin injuries from being moved to slaughtering facilities via commercial transportation.
Criteria for Fitness To Travel
As noted above, we proposed to require a statement of the equine's fitness to travel on the owner-shipper certificate for each equine. Proposed Sec. 88.4(a)(3)(v) (redesignated as paragraph (a)(3)(vii) in this final rule) stated that equines must be able to bear weight on all four limbs, be able to walk unassisted, have sight in at least one eye, be older than 6 months of age, and not be likely to give birth during the trip.

The regulations pertain to those individuals who meet the definition of owner/shipper. An individual or entity is exempt from these regulations if the individual or entity transports 20 or fewer equines to slaughtering facilities or transports equines to slaughtering facilities incidental to his or her principal activity of production agriculture."
 

How to take safe action:  Do not approach the drivers or handlers or discuss the horse with any of their fellows. 

1. Please get the license numbers of the trailer and truck and name of the business, and take a picture with your cell phone if you can. 

2. Please write down the date, time, description of the horse and why you are certain it is blind in both eyes. 

3. Also try to count the number of horses that will be in the load.  Even if this load is less than 20 horses and exempt, it is probably going to be consolidated into a bigger load for the very long haul to Canada and Mexico, in order to be profitable. 

4. If you are fairly certain where they are heading, on what route, make a note of this information as well. 

5. Write everything down carefully.  If need be, text message or voice message the information to store it.

6. Report this information to a horse welfare agency as soon as possible.  They will know which law enforcement agency can and will respond to cite the offender and help the horse, and the horse welfare agency will be able to provide documentation of the federal law, which most border agents, highway patrol officers, county sheriffs are not familiar with.  In some areas the state livestock officers and other law enforcement officers are more sympathetic to the transporters than to the horses, and will not follow up on the infraction.  This is why you need an equine welfare professional who operates in the area and knows who is horse friendly to call.

Deafness, Hearing Loss Prevention                            (Top of Page)

Just as blind horses can live full lives with appropriate care, so can deaf horses.  Caregiver, trainer and rider awareness and a little accommodation in the horse's routine can go a long way. 

Deaf horses have usually sustained an injury to their heads, due to setting back, flipping over, or bumping their heads on the roof of a trailer or beam or due to brain injury during air transport.  There is also deafness caused by injury to the fetus, and genetic deafness.  It is a myth that all Splash White Paints are deaf, though there is a much higher incidence of congenital deafness in the color.

Visual cues, from gestures, touch, and body language are very important to deaf horses. 

Touch becomes more important to deaf as well as blind horses.  Where, when, how, with what you touch, pat, or tap can become a veritable symphony of specific cues.

Even the vibration of a motor or vehicle felt through the ground can be distinguished by a horse and associated with an activity or particular companion. 

TIP:  Pounding the ground with a heavy staff while approaching a deaf horse who has not seen you, until he locates and smells you, can be a good way to "warn" rather than startle him.

As mentioned in the blindness section, a horse's sense of smell becomes more important when compensating for less acute vision or hearing.  Fortunately, horses have a much better sense of smell than humans. 

TIP:  A clever human friend can use scents as training and communication aids as well.  Lavender, peppermint, apple, nutmeg, vanilla and banana scents are fairly easy to obtain and use in a little sprayer to associate certain activities.  You can swab the scents on fences, stall doors, gates, posts, halters, also, for helping the horse orient to surroundings.

It is only common sense that if a deaf horse cannot see or smell an approaching person, animal, or object, it may startle him.

In this video, Caliente, an adopted wild mustang from Nevada, demonstrates her ability to learn to children of a school in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  "Cali" works with children with and without special needs.    Here is the article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press

John Loope, a mounted police officer in Roanoke, Virginia, rides a deaf Paint named Snoopy.

Please visit the Deaf Animal blog Horse section of Gallaudet University for the Deaf, or the Deaf Horse Association for more information. 

Combination of Conditions                                                          (Top of Page)

I do know the story of an aged 32 year old Appaloosa mare who had been completely blind since age 25.  She enjoyed a one-acre pasture with a run-in shed that she knew every inch of, so she could even canter when she felt like it.  However, she became completely disoriented, skittish and dangerous to try to handle when she went deaf.  The owner used both scent and vibration training and she calmed down, was easily fed, haltered and led, groomed, and trimmed by her farrier.  She also had a quiet, younger (relatively) pasture buddy whose rump she could rest her nose on to follow around and whose smell she could orient on.  Another boon was that her owner could stick to a very predictable daily routine for feeding and grooming times and locations that the horses could anticipate.  I know she was in good health, good weight, with a worn but pretty complete set of teeth, at age 33.   However, this lucky mare had a dedicated owner who had been extremely close to her for eighteen years, and was able to spend however much time it required to reorient a blind and deaf best friend to her world, and could support and give quality attention to a companion horse as well.

If you do not have the time to work with a horse with multiple disabilities, please do not allow it to live in a constant state of panic and stress.  Remember what Helen Keller's life was like before Anne Sullivan became her constant and tireless companion.  For help with end of life decisions, please visit our Euthanasia page.

Other Resources                                                              (Top of Page)

The Del Camino Products and Services catalog offers some horse products of interest to owners of senior horses.

Here's an easy online calendar from Intervet for tracking health records.  It can be an excellent tool to collaborate with your boarding or retirement farm, a good link to include in a packet for others who may horse-sit while you are on vacation, and is certainly a cost-free way to get started with good records on your horses from the beginning. Even though to focus is on broodmares and foals, there are excellent tools for keeping adult horse records on vaccinations, worming, trimming and other maintenance:

The AAEP has issued updated vaccination guidelines as of January 2008. 

UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Center for Equine Health

Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue -

Horse Welfare Statistics -

Equinezone Horse Supply -

Equine Now

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