We all know that horses are incredible animals but none more so than when it comes to adapting to life with limited eyesight. Partially sighted, one-eyed and even blind horses have proved time and again how adaptable they can be, with many competing successfully in the top tier of the sports of racing, showjumping, eventing and dressage, despite limited eyesight or vision.

So whether a horse has been born with a limiting eye condition, or has lost an eye through injury or common eye disease, how do you train or retrain a partially sighted horse? How can you help them in their daily lives after such a life-changing event? We asked those with experience for their expert opinions.

How to help partially sighted horses: a case study

South Yorkshire-based showjumper Jessica Hayes, who runs Belton Sport Horses, is currently producing the “very special” four-year-old Humoso, AKA Bazil, who was born with a condition that meant he’s only had vision in one eye from birth.

His breeder Dawn Slater approached Jess last year, asking if she’d take on her beloved youngster, who’d been assessed by vets and she’d been told that he should be able to live a very normal life, despite having no vision in his right eye.

“Dawn told me, ‘This is his drawback, I just want somebody to give him a chance,” recalls Jess. “I said I’d pick him up tomorrow!

“Obviously we had to consider how we were going to train, manage and treat him – the vets had said that hopefully he would adapt well as he’s never had sight in one eye, but that’s easier said than done because he cannot see us at all on his left-hand side, so do we still lead him, mount him and break him in from the left?

“I’d love Bazil to stay with us for the rest of his life but, if he ever needed to do a different job or go to a different home, we needed to give him every chance of having a normal life in a normal home. So we thought ‘OK, we’ll just do everything from the left’ and we did it.

“Flying by the seat of our pants is the best term for what we’ve done!” says Jess, who was helped in the backing process by Jakob Bartlett. “It’s been a huge learning curve because he’s had to adapt to us and we to him.

“The key to helping him as a partially sighted horse is being very vocal and very hands on with the patting, the rewarding and the reassurance. You can see his ears twitching as he listens. I think he has a personality where he tries that much harder – he absolutely loves his job – which also helps.”

Partially sighted horses may naturally have a tendency towards sharpness and Jess says that’s the case with Bazil but “he harnesses that in a positive way” she says of the gelding by Chrysler Key SR x Quidam.

“He’s very sensitive to ride but he does it all himself – flying changes and I cantered him over poles for the first time last week and he travelled down them on the biggest, bounciest, level canter like these poles were nothing. I just thought ‘Wow’.”

Teaching a partially sighted horse to jump seems daunting, but Jess lay the foundations early on with Bazil.

“Every time I ride him, I lay poles around for him to walk or trot over – often tight off the corners so he’s always thinking ahead, looking for them and learning to judge them,” she explains. “I thought that was the best thing I could do for him at this early stage where we’re keeping everything easy and basic for him, so by the time he’s jumping a course, he’ll come off the bends looking for the poles – it’s part of his routine now. He’s had a little jump under saddle and the bolder and brighter the filler is underneath, the better he jumps. I don’t think he’s going to be spooky!

“We’re training his mind and his eye to see and judge as best we can.”

Jess says that riding Bazil doesn’t feel much different to fully sighted horses other than he occasionally wants to tilt his head.

“I use my voice, put a bit of leg on and encourage him and he goes ‘OK, I get this, I’ll keep listening to you’ – his full trust is in us,” says Jess. “When I hacked him out for the first time, we passed tractors and all sorts, but he was so good. He gets turned out every day with my mare, he loads well, he just does everything!

“I don’t think he knows he’s blind. We haven’t told him and people laugh when I say that but this has been him since birth so he doesn’t know any different. As long as we don’t treat him differently we won’t let the cat out of the bag and we can carry on as normal.

“Of course, it’s been challenging but so rewarding – all my reservations and concerns have been blown out the water,” adds Jess who hopes to take Bazil to the Met Tour in Spain in the spring to contest some of the five-year-old classes with a view to producing him to a top-level showjumper alongside her other horses.

“I’d like him ultimately to be one of those horses who can hold his own on the global stage – whether that’s with me or someone else,” she says.

Flipper Darco UK Z

Jennifer Billington’s top showjumping horse Flipper Darco UK Z is blind in one eye but has been a “horse of a lifetime” for his young rider, jumping at London Horse Show, Bolesworth and representing Great Britain at the junior and young rider Europeans.

“He runs off trust,” says Jennifer. “He needs complete confidence in the rider, especially if you’re coming to a water tray – he was shy and spooky with me in his early days, but that perseverance has paid off. Coming off a left turn in a jump-off, I always try to make sure I’m straight enough to allow him to see the fence, but otherwise it doesn’t affect him at all, it’s amazing.”

Flipper Darco’s breeder Caroline Phillips says, “I knew he was blind in one eye from a three-year-old, so when I backed him and rode him, I taught him to listen to my body and understand the turns by riding him round bending poles. He is the most amazing horse I’ve ever ridden.”

How to help partially sighted horses

There are some practical steps you can take to help partially sighted horses in their daily life.

• Provide a safe environment with padding on any sharp edges
• Keep to a familiar, safe routine
• Turn out in the field with a quiet, calm companion
• Place haynets, feed and water buckets in the same position, ideally against a wall or solid object
• Introduce new environments quietly and slowly

With time and a little extra consideration, partially sighted horses have just as much chance as any other horse to life a happy life with a successful career.

Do you have any more top tips for looking after horses with limited vision? Let us know your experiences with partially sighted horses by emailing hhletters@futurenet.com with your name, nearest town and county

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from major shows throughout the year, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

You may also be interested in:

Equine eyesight questions answered, plus vets share advice on common vision problems to look out for

‘She’s incredible’: meet the pocket-rocket thoroughbred winning with one eye

7 famous one-eyed horses who have excelled in their careers

Examining the equine eye *H&H Plus*

What does an ophthalmic exam entail? Ria Chalder MRCVS explains all

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horses have one of the largest eyes of any mammal, but how good is horse eyesight compared to ours? And what common problems should horse owners be ‘keeping an eye out’ for?

We’ve got all the information you need on equine vision and eyes right here – plus some advice from expert vets on how to spot an equine eye problem.

Do horses have good eyesight?

Horses are prey animals and have almost 360° vision – their only blind spots being beneath their chin and directly behind them – so that they can watch out for predators approaching from all directions at the same time as grazing.

They have good motion detection, which allows them to spot predators easily, and have better night vision than humans. Their ability to judge distance and depth is limited, especially as most of their field of view is monocular vision (with one eye), which is why they often raise their heads on approach to a fence. It also takes them longer to adjust from light to dark.

They have developed big, beautiful eyes that protrude from each side of their head. However, this also makes them more exposed, and therefore more vulnerable to blunt or sharp traumatic injury.

Can horses see in colour?

Imogen Johns FRCVS explained to H&H that it is “next to impossible to say for sure how ‘well’ a horse can see”, but we know that horses are dichromats, which makes them red-green colour blind. They can see blues and yellows but browns, oranges and shades of red and green are easily confused. Whereas humans, for example, are trichromats and can see the four basic colours of red, green, blue and yellow.

Horses are able to see very well in low light conditions, but need time to adapt from light to dark situations and vice versa, which is why jumping into and out of shaded areas is such a challenge when riding cross-country.

Signs of sight loss in horses

Karen Coumbe MRCVS told H&H what to look out for to keep your horse’s vision safe. Any sign of ocular pain in horses is always deemed an emergency and a prompt visit from your vet should be arranged if there is:

• An eyelid wound
• A closed or partially closed eye
• Discharge or pus coming from the eye
• A swollen eye or eyelid
• A reddened appearance
• An eyeball that suddenly turns cloudy or develops a discoloured area
• A painful eye, especially if there is also increased sensitivity to light

“A problem affecting one eye only can be an indication of something more serious,” says Karen Coumbe. “Always look out for other more subtle signs, such as downward-pointing eyelashes indicating a partially closed eyelid, or other subtle signs of eye trauma, such as discolouration.”

Causes of sight loss in horses

Ocular injuries generally result from impact, a penetration or an abrasion/laceration and among the most common injuries are abrasions of the globe (which can lead to the formation of a corneal ulcer) and periorbital lacerations (traumatic injuries sustained around the eye).

“To prevent problems, it is important to check your horse’s environment, minimising anything that could potentially injure them, such as thorny vegetation, protruding nails and rough edges around stabling,” says Karen. “Horses often rub their heads on any solid object available, especially during fly season. Interactions with other horses may increase the risk of eye injuries.”

Fly masks and horse sunglasses can be worn to prevent irritation and reduce the risk of injury – and they can provide UV protection, too.

Common horse eyesight problems

Other common horse eye problems that can potentially affect their vision include uveitis (also known as moon blindness) and immune-mediated keratitis. Uveitis means inflammation within the eye and is the most common cause of blindness in horses worldwide and a common cause of chronic eye pain.

Some horse eyesight problems are more common in older horses, including glaucoma or cataracts, or can be more serious, such as corneal disease.

The aim of veterinary treatment is always to save the eye. However, if this cannot be done or if the horse is going to be left with a chronically painful eye, then enucleation (removal of the globe) is a relatively uncomplicated surgery that can be performed. Horses and ponies tolerate the loss of an eye extremely well and appear to adapt easily – many are still able to be ridden, including jumping, after such a procedure.

Can horses cope with loss of vision?

Loss of vision in one eye is generally very well tolerated by horses – most horses are able to return to their “pre-enucleation” job

Loss of vision in both eyes is rare – while some blind horses do adapt, the personality of the horse, the facilities, environment, and input of the owner will all determine how successful the outcome is.

Can blind horses be trained?

Absolutely, training partially sighted horses and blind horses just requires a slightly more considered approach and there are many famous one-eyed horses who have gone on to have incredibly successful careers.

“Endo the Blind”, a US-based appaloosa gelding owned by Morgan Wagner, became famous for his spirit, showing that “blind horses are capable of anything” by claiming three world records aged 22.

At the age of eight he’d been diagnosed with glaucoma, cataracts and equine uveitis, but his record-breaking achievements included the highest free jump by a blind horse (106cm), the fastest time for a blind horse to weave five poles (9.93sec) and the most flying changes in a minute (39).

“Don’t have big goals, just what your horse can do, reward, and try a little bit more next time,” said Morgan.

An Italian racehorse named Laghat won 26 races despite being totally blind in his right eye and 95% blind in his left eye as a result of a fungal infection called mycosis.

“Laghat has a sixth sense, which tells him where to put his legs,” said owner Federico de Paola, who also rode the horse in amateur races.

• For unlimited access to advice on how best to care for your horse, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

You may also be interested in:

How to train, ride and manage a partially sighted horse: advice from owners with experience

All you need to know about the equine eye *H&H VIP*

Our new occasional series zooms in on the equine eye. Looking into this complex device can offer vital clues about

Equine recurrent uveitis (moon blindness) in horses

4 common eye problems in horses and how to treat them

Stay on the look out for these common eye problems in horses

7 famous one-eyed horses who have excelled in their careers

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Blind rider Nicky Greenhill finished fourth at the NAF Five Star Winter Dressage Championships, riding her own mare Betty Boo to score 70.63% in the 34-strong Equi-Trek elementary silver.

“I was really chuffed and didn’t know what to expect – talk about feeling out of your depth,” said Nicky. “I was really pleased with all of my test – I’ve been working on getting Betty working over her back a bit more and into the contact, and I’m super chuffed with how it’s all progressing. We’re really managing to get all that stuff in the ring now and we didn’t make any mistakes, so I’m really pleased.”

Nicky was born with a deteriorating eye condition called Stargardt’s which was first diagnosed at the age of 11, but by her early twenties, she could only see shapes against a contrasting background to the side and underneath. She also has total night blindness and suffers badly with glare.

Despite her challenges as a blind rider, Nicky has achieved her dream of competing in dressage and although the Winter Dressage Championships are her first able-bodied championship, she previously competed in top level para dressage as a grade IV rider. She competed in many international events and won team silver at the 2019 European Championships, but has decided to take a break from para competition and concentrate on able-bodied events.

“The set up in able-bodied events is exactly the same as when I’m at the paras – I have a caller in the middle [of the arena], an electronic caller at the end and another caller at the corner markers,” Nicky explained. “It’s quite a complicated test for me, so we’ve been working quite hard on it and it all paid off today.

“Hopefully I’ll go back to para competition eventuality, but for now I’m focusing on a new test and different challenge, and I aim to qualify for the summer regionals at elementary and medium.”

You might also like…

Winter Dressage Championships: ‘I thought he was dull as a four-year-old – but luckily I failed to sell him’

Tales from Hartpury: Six home-breds represent Headmore Stud at Winter Dressage Championships

Winter Dressage Championships 2022: ‘I put so much pressure on myself’

Area Festival Championships: ‘Goey’ chestnut mare produces best test to date to clinch PSG glory

How to watch the Winter Dressage and Area Festival Championships live from anywhere in the world

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Anyone who has ever tried walking in a straight line with their eyes closed, knows it is a challenge, but how about riding round a course of showjumps without being able to see — trusting only a guide and the horse under you to get you round in one piece?

This is something that blind showjumper Karen Law knows all too well. Next week Karen and her nine-year-old mare Silver Silhouette (Pearl) will take to the arena at Scope Festival (23-30 August) in the para-showjumping.

The Belgian warmblood was gifted to Karen last year thanks to fundraising efforts from her mentor Dame Emma Jane Brown — herself a former international showjumper.

The Chesire-based rider, who shows awe-inspiring levels of both commitment and courage, was born with bilateral collomboma, which meant that her eyes never developed properly. A childhood accident when she was three resulted in a retinal detachment leaving her with no vision in her right eye. She has no peripheral vision, only central vision extending a few feet in front of her.

“My mum encouraged me to ride and would take me to the riding school. I got my first pony, Chester, when I was eight,” says Karen. “I stopped riding when I was 15 and didn’t pick it up again until I was 42, when one day I spoke to a riding instructor and decided to get back riding. Someone from a riding school suggested I spoke to British Showjumping about para-showjumping.”

Meeting her mentor

Karen crossed paths with Emma through Riding for the Disabled (RDA) for which Emma is an ambassador.

“She an amazing person — not only as a mentor, but also a friend,” says Karen of Emma.

Having spotted Karen riding at the RDA National Championships at Hartpury College in 2013, Emma was so touched by her story that she set about raising funds to purchase Karen her first horse.

“When I saw her ride, it struck me how incredibly brave and inspiring she was. She was intriguing to watch,” says Emma. “She was riding a borrowed horse and I started thinking how important that trust between the rider and horse must have to be — I couldn’t stop thinking about it and I wanted to help her.”

Emma raised an impressive £10,000 through a skydive and other fundraising efforts.

“Karen started crying when I told her I was doing it for her, she couldn’t believe it. The skydive was exhilarating but even more so because I was doing it for Karen to make her dream of owning a horse come true,” adds Emma.

Continued below…

7 jumping questions you thought were too obvious to ask

There are some jumping questions that seem too obvious to ask — so we've asked them for you...

Finding Pearl

The next step was to find Karen a suitable mount. Karen’s trainer Adrian Marsh was the person who came across the grey mare Pearl.

Karen tried her and loved her straight away and unbeknown to Karen, Emma purchased her — but kept it a secret.

“We told Karen she was sold and she was devastated. It was then arranged for her to be presented with Pearl at the Royal Windsor Horse Show last year in front of The Queen (pictured below).

“She had no idea up until the moment the commentator announced it — she was overwhelmed beyond belief,” says Emma.

“Pearl is such a character — so full of life and cheeky. Our bond is so special,” says Karen, who works full-time at an eye clinic and makes a 2hr journey to ride Pearl once a week — a trip involving a bus, a train and a taxi to Adrian’s yard where she is kept.

In the arena — it’s all about trust

Since getting Pearl, Karen has teamed up with her trainer Adrian’s daughter Rebecca — a showjumper herself — who acts as her guide at competitions.

“The most important part is walking the course. Rebecca and I walk it as if we are riding it and go through the striding,” says Karen. “There is a lot to think about and I can only take in so much. The mains two things I have to remember are where the jumps are and where the turns are.

“There is not only amazing trust between me and Rebecca, but also between me and Pearl.

“I do get nervous before, but I love it. I wish I could be competing all the time — I’m so lucky to have the support I do,” adds Karen, who competed in La Baule in 2011 on a borrowed horse and was guided by 2012 Olympian Peter Charles.

“Rebecca is only 21, but is so calm and great at telling me where to go and giving instructions — but I don’t always get it right,” she says.

“Karen and Pearl have a wonderful bond,” says Emma. “Pearl is so relaxed with Karen, it’s like she knows. Karen will often sit outside her stable cleaning tack and Pearl will rest her head on her.”

Being able to see is something we take for granted, but how does someone with limited vision even contemplate getting on a horse?

“I’m lucky because I have never known anything different,” she says in a matter-of-fact way. “When I ride, it is like heaven on earth — life is too short, you need to take every opportunity.”

Don’t miss the full report from Scope Festival in 3 September issue of Horse & Hound magazine

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

A shire foal has become the first horse in the UK to undergo a radical new procedure to restore her sight.

Vets advised owners Donald and Jane McIntrye from Bristol to put Mary Anne down when she was discovered to be blind shortly after birth. But after carrying out research the couple opted for pioneering cataract surgery, carried out by vet Tim Knott.

“The operation cost about £6,000 — I guess we are big softies,” said Mr McIntrye. “But it was worth it. After the operation she was literally dancing around and jumping for joy. There was no stopping her.

“It was also the first time that she could see her mother and that made her very happy. Mary Anne has settled down really well and we have no regrets about it.”

The surgery, which involved removing Mary Anne’s cataracts and inserting lenses into her eyes, is a recent development in equine care.

Mr Knott explained: “Cataract surgery on animals has been around for a while, but has always been unsuccessful on horses. There are now three vets in the UK doing it, alhtough Mary Anne was one of the first, if not the first, to have it done.”

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

The Animal Health Trust (AHT) in Newmarket has launched a fund-raising appeal to pay for new technology that cures the most common form of blindness in horses.

The AHT is the only place in the UK to have a phaco-emulsification machine, which can cure equine recurrent uveitis (ERU).

ERU is a painful inflammation of the inside of the eye, said Neal Ashton, senior surgeon at Oakham Veterinary Hospital in Rutland.

“In humans, treatment is a standard procedure, but we do not have a simple treatment for horses. This sounds like a move in the right direction,” he said.

The machine performs vitrectomy — surgery to remove clouded fluid from inside the eye.

AHT staff have already used the machine to restore the sight of rescued moon bears in China and a lioness in Romania.

AHT opthalmologist Claudia Hartley said: “It really will revolutionise the way we treat eye disease in larger animals.

“Having it at the AHT means we can save the sight of many animals which would have gone blind permanently.”

The machine has been given to the AHT by German company Acrivet, but has yet to be paid for.

Now the AHT has launched the Sight for Sore Eyes campaign and is seeking donations in order to pay the £35,000 needed to secure the equipment permanently.

The cost to a horse owner of an average eye operation using the phaco-emulsification machine is around £3,500 and takes about two hours.

For details visit: www.sightforsoreeyes.org.uk

This article was first published in Horse & Hound (13 August, ’09)

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now