Missoulian, Dec. 19, 2004
Blind Devotion: Owners of Rolling Dog Ranch have unexpectedly created a nationally recognized home for sightless horses.
By GINNY MERRIAM of the Missoulian
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Can a blind horse have a good life?
Lots of people say no. But at the Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary east of Ovando, the answer is an emphatic yes.
That's not to say the sanctuary's owners could have said that four years ago when they began their nonprofit venture as a home for disabled and elderly animals. They were thinking "dogs and cats." Then their first animal, by acts of fate, was a blind horse.
Lena, a quarter horse, was the victim of a training regimen that would force her to fall over backwards if she reared up. The blows to her head damaged her optic nerves until she went blind.
Steve Smith and Alayne Marker, alone on 160 acres on Kleinschmidt Flat pursuing their dream, knew "absolutely zero" about blind horses, Smith says today. Even Marker, who grew up with horses, had no experience with them.
The simple fact is that most blind horses are put down.
"I think there's a lot of myths, a lot of misunderstandings, a lot of misconceptions and a lot of ignorance about what it means to care for a blind horse," Marker said. "I was really ignorant about them until we started getting them."
Then Smith and Marker, married 10 years, got another going-blind horse. Shasta, a 20-year-old Appaloosa, had spent his life being leased to dude ranches and outfitters as "seasonal stock" and was being sold for being too old. Then another blind horse came to them. And more. They came from around the country, saved by chance by people who couldn't keep them but had heard about the Rolling Dog's work.
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Today, 17 horses with disabilities are at home at the Rolling Dog Ranch. Eleven are blind. And Smith and Marker find themselves, by accident, in the position of national "expert," even though their experience is brief.
They've started a companion Web site to their Rolling Dog site, www.blindhorses.org, with information about eye diseases, training and their own experiences because of the phone calls and e-mails they get from around the country and even overseas. The couple and their ranch was the subject of an article in the November/December issue of America's Horse magazine, the magazine of the American Quarter Horse Association.
There just aren't many resources for people committed to horses that are losing or have lost their sight, they've found.
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Missoula veterinarian Bill Brown, the Rolling Dog's large-animal vet, has seen plenty of blind and going-blind horses. Most are Appaloosas, who are prone to equine recurrent uveitis, a group of inflammatory eye diseases that are the leading cause of blindness in horses. But never this many in one place. And they're hardly ever long-term patients, he said.
"It's rare to see them kept alive," he said. "Very few people - even really good-hearted people - are able to keep horses around indefinitely who are 'useless,' " he said. "People have financial constraints in their lives."
"Steve and Alayne have done more of this than anyone I know," he said.
"I think an awful lot of horses get put down or sold to the cannery," he said. "And it's often with good intentions. A lot of people can't imagine how a horse can have a good quality of life when they can't see."
But, he asks, "Is it any different than asking, 'Can a blind person have a good life?' "
Smith and Marker have learned about blind horses just by watching and taking care of them.
"They can really enjoy life, just like a sighted horse," Smith said. "There really is no difference with what they can and can't enjoy."
How happy a horse can be without sight depends on its temperament - and the temperament of its owner, said New York veterinarian Ann Dwyer, a general practice equine specialist with an interest in ophthalmology who has become a medical resource for Marker and Smith.
"It takes a very special person to own a horse with special needs, whether it's lame or blind," she said in a phone interview. "And not every horse is going to adapt well to blindness."
High-strung horses, such as thoroughbreds, may be so nervous that they can't enjoy their lives anymore; they may injure themselves or people by thrashing around out of fright, she said. Imagine a 1,000-pound creature with relatively fragile lower legs no bigger around than a baseball bat getting tangled in a fence or fighting being loaded into a trailer. Each horse has to be considered individually.
And so does each horse veterinarian.
"Many vets would say, 'Put it down,' " she said. "But not all. We try not to have dogmatic views on anything."
Dwyer, who calls herself a "centrist" on the issue, is the author of a chapter on the practical management of blind horses in the forthcoming book, "Equine Ophthalmology." She is also a clinical associate in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine.
Dwyer wrote the chapter because there is virtually no literature on the topic.
One of the biggest challenges for horses is their nature as a herd animal. They follow a strict social hierarchy, Dwyer said, and they communicate and stick to the rules using visual cues. The flick of an ear or the roll of an eye can carry weighty meaning. The blind horse appears to be ignoring the signs, and the dominant horses can kick, bite and shove it for the offense.
"It's just like people," Dwyer said. "You are going to see individuals who behave appallingly and other individuals who are empathetic."
Most of the blind horses that have been rescued by the Rolling Dog Ranch arrive thin because they've been pushed away from the communal food by other horses, Smith said.
"Many of these animals come out of environments where they've had the tar beaten out of them by other horses and been neglected by people," Smith said.
Sometimes people's efforts to protect the horses go wrong. Marie was a roping horse on a ranch on the Rocky Mountain Front until she went blind at 15. After other horses beat her up, Marie's owners put her in a corral by herself. It didn't have a water tank, so she could only drink when someone came to lead her to water.
She stayed there for two years, when the Rolling Dog's farrier heard about her and arranged for her to go to the Rolling Dog Ranch.
"Marie was not abused," Smith said. "But she had a lonely, miserable life."
Faith, a 30-year-old blind mare and new arrival, went through the Salt Lake City auction three times this year but somehow escaped the slaughterhouse each time.
She was traded by the last buyer for $10 and a goat when he discovered she was blind. She arrived at the Rolling Dog with scars all over her from other horses.
She didn't have a name, just an auction number. Smith and Marker thought Faith, as in "blind faith," was right.
"She'd been through the auction three times, all beat up, blind, 30 years old," Smith said.
Faith developed a close friendship with a blind gelding at the ranch, Scout, reinforcing Smith and Marker's discovery that usually other blind horses are the best companions.
At first, the best arrangement seemed to be pairing a blind horse with a sighted horse or mule with a bell on its halter. Shasta fell madly in love with his seeing horse, Blueberry.
"The poor guy loved her so much, he was obsessed with her," Marker said. "He spent all his time trying to keep up with her."
Then when Marie got the same notion about Blueberry, it started to drive the sighted horse crazy, too. Everybody was nervous all the time. Now Shasta is pals with Blue, a 25-year-old blind horse retired from the U.S. Forest Service, and he's much happier and more relaxed.
Marker and Smith have learned some basic rules from blind horses. No barbed wire. Smooth fences only. Pastures must be inspected often for gopher holes.
Consistent and calm handling is important, especially as a horse is going blind. Some horses have gone on to be dressage competitors and even drill team members with patient voice training.
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When a new blind horse arrives, Smith and Marker show it around the perimeter of the corral, tapping on the bars so the horse can mentally map its new home. They do the same with the horse's stall. Blind horses must have indoor shelter, Marker and Smith have learned.
They're raising money for a new barn so they can take more blind horses - while keeping their commitment to disabled and elderly dogs and cats.
The latest equine arrival is a 7-month-old filly named Nikki. She was rescued from New Jersey by a collaboration with Best Friends sanctuary and the Last Chance Ranch after the breeder's neighbor learned the breeder was going to donate Nikki for medical experiments. In a single day, she was weaned, put in a trailer for the first time and taken from her mother. She thrashed and panicked.
After a short stay at Last Chance Ranch in Pennsylvania, Nikki made the trip to Montana with a companion goat she had become close to, hauled by Jeff Marks of Grand Champion Horse Transportation in Hamilton. She was sound asleep when she arrived.
She's getting used to her surroundings and a halter, and Marker hopes she can become a trail riding horse. Lonesome George, the ranch's old mule, has reluctantly become her "nanny mule."
She alternately snuggles up to people and kicks up her heels.
"She's a love," Smith said, as Nikki stood quietly next to him awaiting a veterinary exam from Shane Moe, Brown's partner. "Ten minutes from now, she'll be skittering around this corral, not letting me catch her. We have to go through the 'terrible 2s.' "
Moe thinks Nikki was probably born blind. Brown thinks she may have hit her head when she was tiny.
"The typical history is someone puts a halter on them when they're little, and they struggle and they hit their head," Brown said.
Nikki has adapted well, Brown said, and seems happy.
"Horses don't read great books. So they don't miss that," he said. "What do horses want? They want enough to eat, enough to drink and other horses to socialize with. Horses really want peace and quiet."
There's no one more grateful, Smith and Marker say, than a blind horse snug in a stall of clean hay in a barn full of friends while a blizzard rages outside.
"You can tell they're grateful," Marker said, "at
having another
chance."
