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Discussion on New Article: Horses Ability to See
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Tuesday, Apr 22, 2008 - 4:10 pm:
Considering the vision capabilities of horses can help explain much of the behavior of horses and therefore an important consideration for equestrians. However it can be hard to measure these because perception is such a personal experience. Even when we can speak to an individual some aspects of vision can be difficult to describe. It is the old enigma of explaining sight to someone who has never had sight or even can we ever test to see if what you see is the same as what I see. Yes we use the same words for colors but your green may be my red. Fortunately molecular biology and enhanced behavioral testing has answered some of these questions in the horse.
It is natural to think that our companion animals see very similar to ourselves but this appears far from the truth. Field of vision, color perception, night adapted sight, ability to focus, and sensitivity to motion are all things that are different in the horse but can be hard to test for. To access the article select The Vision of Horses off the navigation bar above.
DrO
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Member:
jojo15
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Posted on Tuesday, Apr 22, 2008 - 9:06 pm:
off to read the article now.. but your post made me think of old times... i remember (when i rode at night all the time.) my horse was a different horse at night. where i would be more nervous she was more steadfast. she just saw things differently. Things that could spook her in the day? never at night. it was like she was in control. not me.!!!! She was a different horse...and it was almost more serene to ride her that way. But she saw everything she needed to see.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 - 6:19 am:
We use to ride the Moses Cone trails a lot and if the weather good on July 4th we would ride with a small group up to the cemetary where you could look down toward Boone and watch the fireworks "from above". One year it was a unusally dark night with no moon at all. After the fireworks we had several miles to go through some heavily wooded hillside trails. It got so bad in the woods that you could not see your hand in your face at some points. Though a bit nervous about it we set the reins down and our horses got us back to the barn without incident.
DrO
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Member:
ekaufman
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Posted on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 - 9:08 am:
A group of us used to jump past sunset in an unlit outdoor arena in CT. One night we were all having a grand old time in the dark, counting on our horses to keep us out of trouble, when it occurred to us to wonder if the horses were saying to each other: it's ok, humans have great night vision.
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Member:
wgillmor
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Posted on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 - 10:13 am:
I have also experienced my horse's ability to go along in the dark comfortably when I could not see anything.
I wonder, however, if part of this is due to their superior agility and reaction time?
Wiley
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Member:
alden
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Posted on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 - 7:33 pm:
A few years back there was research done that indicates deer see a broader range of light than we do, because they see ultraviolet light it is theorized some objects appear similar to what we see with a black light. I wonder if horses see a broader range of light like deer.
I guide hunters into the Rocky Mountains in total dark all the time, I often ride when I can't see the horse I'm sitting on and the horses never have a problem seeing the trail.
The most interesting thing is the look on the hunters faces when we ride out in daylight and they see how narrow the trail is and how far the creek is below them 
Good day,
Alden
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 - 8:35 pm:
Alden,
Don't think I'd like to go on one of those rides. I don't like heights!
I wonder too if the horses don't have some sort of 6th sense like vibration through their hooves? As I learn more and more about trimming, it's amazing how important every part of the hoof is; and although it's solid and seems to not feel the pain of a rasp or hoof knife, there may be other things that help with a "feel."
I've had some beautiful moon light rides in the woods here and the most I ever got scared was when a big owl came over head! But the horse was fine with even that, and never stumbled over downed branches or logs.
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Member:
imogen
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Posted on Thursday, Apr 24, 2008 - 1:42 am:
I worry about dazzling them with my headtorch in the winter at night but they never seem to be bothered. The new LCD torches have the advantage that their blue light spectrum catches the reflective back of a horse's eyes like cat's eyes which makes it a hell of a lot easier to find horses and check them on a stormy night...
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Member:
cpacer
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Posted on Thursday, Apr 24, 2008 - 11:09 am:
Great information! No more excuses for not riding because it's dark out I guess.
So I wonder how a horse afraid of the color orange could be explained?
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Member:
lhenning
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Posted on Wednesday, Apr 30, 2008 - 12:17 pm:
I did a little "informal" eye test this week. I was walking into the pasture and the herd was approximately fifty yards away. Two horses lifted their heads to look at me. Now at this time of day, they are expecting to see the barn people coming to get them back for feeding. However, each day when I walk down there I wave when they look at me, which is something no one else does. Both horses saw my hand wave from that distance and knew it was me, so immediately DrOpped their heads and went back to grazing. From reading the article, they were using the binocular vision and if I understand this, that vision is a bit sharper than if I had approached from the side. We had a discussion awhile back about horses learning cues from a distance and this situation made me think of it. Interesting.
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