Ridecamp: Re: [RC] blind Enduro horse?

>
> Hey all, we made it home(barely) from our move from South Carolina to
> Oregon. I am currently looking at a horse to purchase and she had lepto
> in one eye and lost sight in that eye. I was wondering if anyone has
> had any experience with a partially blind endurance horse? The owner
> say she does well on trails and is willing to let me have a 30 day
> trial. Her breeding alone makes me want to get her just for the fact
> that I can get buku bucks for the baby if I decide to sell
> it.(Huckleberry bey daughter) I know it all depends on the horse but
> what do you all think? Thanks

Partial blindness in and of itself is not a problem for many horses, and
I've seen several one-eyed horses compete quite happily and safely.  We
competed with our stallion Abu Ben Surrabu, who fought the good fight with
recurrent uveitis most likely from lepto exposure, and eventually became
totally blind.  He completed one endurance ride after becoming totally
blind, and I pulled on another one when I got heat stroke and lost
sufficient time that I knew we could not make up the time loss with his
sight deficit.  The biggest problem competing on a horse with recurrent
uveitis is that if the horse has a flare-up and needs to be treated for
it, you'll have to forego competition during treatment in order not to be
in violation of AERC drug rules (never mind that it wouldn't be fair to
the horse to be asked to compete when the eye is painful anyway--gee,
could be that's one reason why we have drug rules?  Ya think?)
Heidi



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