Q: I am a barn manager at a Dutch Warmblood farm. I have a filly that turned 2 in March. She has been in the field for a year (the owner is out of the country and can’t return).

She was born with one eye, and I need to train her. I have ridden one-eyed horses, but I’ve never taught them from such a young age. I also feel I need to change her feed, as she is so anxious. She was just brought into the barn four days ago, so I understand her nervousness. This is a very high-strung horse, and her sire and dam are also very high-strung. The dam’s line is known to be very dominating and bossy, with a very strong, entitled attitude.     —Deborah, via e-mail

A: Like yours, my firsthand experience working with visually impaired horses has been mostly with those that lost vision as an adult, after they had been trained. And, in general, the horses I have worked with directly have impressed me with how adaptable they have been with losing vision in one eye. I only remember one animal with which I had long-term firsthand experience. It was a young colt that came to us previously unhandled with vision in only one eye. He was to be a teaching and research animal. So we only had to train him for breeding and for various research studies. That colt did great with all that we needed him to do for routine management and breeding in the barn and at pasture with other horses, as well as in a variety of studies. His left eye was his good eye, which handlers seemed happy about. They felt that it was easier for leading him from the left side.

When first being trained, at anxious moments, this colt’s tendency was to shy into the handler a bit, away from his blind side. He was a very high-libido colt–a very enthusiastic breeder. We also had the impression that this colt did better when given plenty of latitude with his head, rather than keeping a short lead on him. That allowed him to better position his head so as to keep the mare in view as he approached. Some of art of handling him was to give him just enough latitude, but maintaining safe control. Once he learned the routine, he was a very easy horse to work with