08/30/2026
I would love you to meet my blind horse!
Meet Ace!
Ace was bought from an auction in November of 2011 by my barn owner (she was still married to my ex boss). He was $225, and a run down ranch horse no one wanted. He was blind in his left eye, skinny, and looked to be in his twenties. He was bought with five other horses, no doubt the cheapest of the lot, and brought home to the ranch. My barn owner named him Ace, because he was so lethargic it was like he’d been aced. Perhaps maybe he was.
I saw him for the first time when I was 16 and about a month later on Christmas day. I liked him immediately, though he was shockingly skinny with an unkempt starvation coat.
When I first went to catch him, probably a few weeks later, he ran from me because I scared him by touching him on his blind side without warning him. Then I figured out that my ex boss thought he was in his 20s and wasn’t a horse I really needed to ride, so I put him out of my mind. There’s really only one photo of him between Christmas and after our first ride. There might be another, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere.
I started riding him because I was invited on a trail ride with my boss and barn owner. I didn’t have a horse of my own, so I would be borrowing one of theirs, and I had a choice: Ace, who was perceived to be steady (though we now knew he was about 12 (however that vet was probably off and he was probably between 12-15), or Shiloh, a nutty little pony I was attempting to train a bit who was pushy and a pain. So I chose Ace, wanting a safer option for my first trail ride.
The ride was in February, on the 4th, so I rode Ace the first time the day before the ride. It was the first time I’d ever felt a horse terrified of me.
He walked fine, but when he started trotting he kept trying to break to the canter. He was jumpy and antsy and his trot was jolting. I asked for a canter, and he straight up bolted. I tried to jockey stop him, but he ran through it and was headed straight for our creek.
I had two options - stay in the saddle, or pray he jumped. I got into two point, breathed, and squeezed.
He crashed into the creek, faceplanted in the bank, and I flipped over his head. My barn owner saw the whole thing happened and was terrified we’d both been hurt. However, we were fine, and I asked for a leg up before riding him slowly back to the barn.
The trail ride that weekend was a bit of a disaster. It rained and Ace got a stone bruise from having no shoes. But he’d captured my heart.
I began to ride him more regularly, and mostly we worked on being able to trot like a nice calm horse again, his leads, and not bolting. Once he started to trust me, he turned into a fantastic partner. He’d always been happy and willing to learn new things, no matter what. Our next trail ride was much more enjoyable, and we made quite the impression on the many other riders, who respected us instead of laughing at us for being one of a few English pairs.
After that ride the story gets a bit... Bland? There’s not much to tell. We continued his training, got to know each other better. Despite having other horses to ride, he was undoubtedly my favorite, and I approached my boss and ex boss about eventing him. They agreed, and I started thinking up ways toward training him for eventing.
Unfortunately, there was a lot that happened around the time that Ace was evaluated for becoming an eventing prospect. He was approved, but I started my senior year without any real plans of showing him. We continued just riding, with no real aim to what we were doing beyond having fun.
Fast forward to around the time of my graduation from high school in 2013. My ex boss divorced his wife, who is my barn owner now, and leaves. Fearing for Ace's ownership, I asked my barn owner what would happen to him if my ex boss decided to take him. She firmly told me that would never happen, and that Ace was my horse. He was my graduation gift from her.
That summer we went back to training for eventing. We did a lot of gallops and I introduced him to Dressage.
However in the last week of July, right before I started college, Ace scratched the cornea of his right eye - the only one he had left. My ex-boss was still in the picture at the time (he still kinda took care of the horses, since his horses were still on property). He took Ace to the local vet, who diagnosed him and sent him home with ointment. For two weeks we tried our best to treat him, but it was obvious nothing was working.
We were sent to the nearest equine hospital, where the vet told us, “on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the best and 10 being the worst, this eye is an 8." Ace was admitted to the hospital and stayed there a week, getting a lavage system put in and getting round the clock treatment.
When he was sent home, my barn owner and I alternated treating him every 4 hours. It was an intense treatment, and Ace became depressed and lost a lot of weight and muscling. He was only allowed out 1-2 hours in the morning and 1-2 hours in the evening, and had to be supervised, because we didn’t want him pulling out his lavage system.
When the lavage system was removed, he still had ointment treatment, but it was clear the eye was on the mend.
While I’m sure there’s a photo somewhere of my first ride back on Ace, I don’t know where it is. I know I was really emotional. I got back on him in November of 2013, and he tried his heart out for me. I was surprised to find that he’d barely forgotten any of his Dressage work, and we were able to pretty much pick up right back where we left off.
We went on to do many things in our years together. He became my rock. Ace was my go to horse; whether it was herding cattle, supervising clients picking up hay, checking fence, or ponying a youngster, he did it all with glee.
While he never evented, he did eventually compete in Dressage and usually finished in the ribbons, though I never competed him above Intro. His joints simply could not keep up. The judges never knew he was blind. I didn't want him to be judged differently.
When it became clear that he wasn't going much farther as a Dressage horse, I was stuck. He was still able minded and needed a job; Ace wasn't a horse to sit. The venue where I evented my young horse had an obstacle trail course, and I believe I simply shrugged my shoulders and said, why not?
Ace went on to win several ribbons, a horsemanship award, and ever reserve grand champion at that facility. Our judge knew he was blind but never judged him differently for it. Most of our competitors didn't know, but learned. They loved him. They loved how he pranced to his course, arching his neck and trying to resemble his dressage days.
I retired him fully in 2018. I could no longer keep up with his fitness for trail, not with a full time job and an up and coming young eventer. He was 23 years old - at least and by best guess - and owed me nothing.He taught little girls to steer and kind of trot. He loved his life and wanted for nothing. But we noticed things. Like when he would run the wrong way when called up for feeding. When he walked into the side of the barn one day. When he started to stumble more and more.
On May 13, 2019, I got the call Ace was down. He couldn't get up. They'd tried everything. I called the vet sobbing and drove like mad to get to him. The vet was there when I arrived, and had already given him the last chance steroid. But I was a former vet tech by this time, and I knew how unlikely it was that he'd get up. Hardly any of them get up.
But I asked him to get up. My barn owner always said Ace would do anything I asked. I asked him to stand for me one last time.
Ace stood up. I sobbed harder, I cursed him and his big, selfless heart, the brave little red horse who stood. The vet and I discussed options. And there was no guarantee. We could try NSAIDs. We could wait and see.
But it would happen again. That was the only guarantee. In two hours. In two years. He was a ticking time bomb of going down again. And I knew I couldn't put him through it a second time.
So we walked him to a good spot. I sobbed into his mane and told him he was the best blind horse ever and my soulmate and how much I loved him.
And then he was gone.
Ace still has a page called Ace the Blind Horse, which I left up in memory of his life. I have a rescue who would love for me to take on another blind horse, but even now, nearly two years later, my heart is still broken and I haven't been able to face the idea. But I want to help blind horses everywhere, even if by only sharing Ace's story.
Heaven is a little red horse in a wide open field.
Ace and Ashley Evans
FYI: Since March 2020, Kari with HOC Rose Sanctuary Rescue started collecting Blind Horse Owner’s stories (I would love you to meet my blind horse) told in their own words from those horse owners who discovered their horse is blind, sharing their journey of owning and caring for their blind horse(s) because they want to give HOPE to others who seek HOPE for their blind horses. We post those stories every Sunday on our page and Blind Horses page.
There is a blind horse community among us that needs to be heard and seen.
Sharing Blind Horse Owner's stories is our most powerful tools in sharing awareness on blind horses. The more stories we can share then more people will realize it is very common and is not a rare occurrence.
Each one of us started knowing nothing about blind horses and we learned as we went along. If we can, so can anyone. Horses become blind in different ways: genetic predisposition, injury, eye diseases, or from natural aging process.
The stigma is very low with partial blind horses but when it comes to those fully blind horses, the reaction is a whole different picture. The stigma is still there for those fully blind horses.
If you have a blind horse, Please consider sharing your story with us so we can share your story on our platform and I would like to see everyone share their stories on their own platform and any other media source to spread ripple far as possible. Our email is [email protected].
P.S. If you already shared your story with us, please feel free to share any new update on what is happening with your horse so we can keep your story updated. See less
