Call me crazy but............

[Carla]

We took in the cutest Shetland pony mare and her yearling filly yesterday. The kicker is.....the mare is blind. She is so beautiful and petite. I haven't been around a pony in 30 years and I am just in love with their tiny little bodies. They are both black and white.

These girls come from a lady that has a horse rescue in eastern missouri. Not too many people want a blind horse. The mare is dependant on her filly for security of her surroundings. Her history is when the lady took her in 3 years ago she was blind in the left eye. From what I gather, she wasn't evaluated by a vet..... Fast forward to last year, shortly after she deliverd her foal she went blind in the right eye. Still not evaluated by a vet or if she was I don't remember the lady saying so....

The eyes look different....but my nursing diagnosis is uveitis. She doesn't seem to be in any discomfort at all and has no tearing or discharge. My plans are to get her to my vet, who btw is an outstanding horse vet, to get it evaluated to see if there is any hope to help return vision and to make sure she isn't in any pain.

Did I tell you they are really cute. Momma is very trusting and as long as you are talking to her or touching her is very calm. I feel like a kid at christmas.
BTW the filly is half welch. Not sure if it is cob or pony. There is some story about the breeding that the lady that owns the stud was upset that this mare took but all the other mares she bred didn't and she refused to give up the correct paperwork to allow this filly to be registered. Whatever.....

[wyomama]

What? No pictures?

Yeah, it's probably crazy. But it's the good kind of crazy. ;D

[jerseyrose]

Hopefully your vet can do something to help her. Your not crazy, and at least you chose small ones that don't eat as much!!

[missrobinson]

Oh how darling yet bittersweet about blindness. They sound like little cuties. You aren't crazy lol they won't eat much. We had a paint Welsh pony and he looked like the ponies you only see in movies. I find it very odd she wouldn't want the filly registered, could it be the blindness is a genetic problem if it's not an infection/disease of some sort? That's one reason not to really want the breeding to happen but as for papers..ya I'm with you: whatever.

[marseydoats]

Blind horses aren't really that much more trouble than sighted ones.
My App got that terrible unspellable disease that Apps get (I haven't had enough caffeine yet this am) and managed just fine for 5 years in his paddock.
You just have to be careful about changing things in their turnout area (water troughs, salt blocks) and make sure you pick up any fallen limbs or stuff they can trip over.
I even rode my App in the paddock to make sure he got some exercise, but he wasn't trustworthy enough to take out on the trails. There is a lady on HT who does competitive trail riding on a blind mare --- it just depends on the horse.
My 30 plus year old mare has cataracts and she has very limited vision, but she gets around just fine in the barnyard. The only problem she has is that her nose doesn't work anymore either, so she can't find her water bucket when she has a "horseheimers" moment, but dh & I just carry her a bucket wherever she is.
I don't think you're crazy!
Best of luck!