Clicker Training: This Made A Difference With My Horse’s Eye Injury
Last week during the evening feeding I noticed one of my horse’s had a weepy eye. There were a lot of flies around his eye so I thought that was the reason why it was weeping. I got him up out of the pasture and upon further inspection I found that he must have poked it on something because there was a little nick to the eye.
It wasn’t easy to look at his eye because he kept it closed tightly and I know it had to hurt. You know how it feels when you get something in your eye, but at least we have hands to work on getting the foreign object out. The eyes are so sensitive and are nothing to mess around with.
I put him in a stall and then I took a clean old soft sock and applied to it a product called “Calm Eyes”. This product is good to decrease drainage, soothe irritations, reduces redness and stops itching. The ingredients are distilled water and Eyebright (an herb that is great for the eyes). I knew that neither one of these would hurt his eye with there being distilled water and Eyebright.
After I got his eye cleaned up I then put a fly mask on him to keep the flies away, but also to help with the sunlight.
Now for most horses when you start messing with their eyes they throw their head up in the air and that becomes dangerous because they may hit you in the head. Some horses will go backwards as fast as they can. With my guy because I’ve done a lot of clicker training with him it was easier to mess with his eye.
The veterinarian gave me drops to put in his eye three times a day. Again thank goodness for clicker training because it really helps you to communicate effectively with your horse telling them “Yes” that is what I want. I’ve been able to put the drops in his eye without him throwing his head around, going backwards or any other drama.
Clicker training is a great way to communicate with your horse and you can use it for so many things. If you want to learn how to use clicker training for things such as this or to change your horse’s behavior go to my contact page and send me an email today!