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<P class=MsoNormal>A one-eyed horse named Patch has a chance of winning the
Kentucky Derby - The Washington Post<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>By Eliza McGraw May 3<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Meet the one-eyed horse set to run the Kentucky
Derby<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>A one-eyed horse named Patch is set to run in the Kentucky
Derby for the first leg of U.S. thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown. (Reuters)
<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Patch looks a lot like the other Kentucky Derby contenders —
he’s a sleek, muscled, 3-year-old thoroughbred. At least, he looks like the
other racehorses<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>from the right side. On the left, where others have an eye,
Patch has an empty, ping-pong ball-size socket.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Patch lost his eye due to an ulcer that never healed; he came
out of his stall one morning with a swollen and tearing eye, his trainer has
said, and no<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>one knew why. The eye worsened and eventually had to be
removed. Fittingly, and a little eerily, the colt was already named
Patch.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>As an underdog with a great story — and <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>a Twitter accoun<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>t — Patch is easy to pull for, and he’s proving to be a fan
favorite in the days leading up to the race on Saturday. But as a one-eyed
racehorse, he’s<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>neither unique nor even the first to run in the Kentucky
Derby: <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>One ran in 1982,<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>another in 2004,<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>and <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>another in 2007.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>“We very commonly have situations where racehorses have to
have their eyes removed, and the majority of racehorse trainers don’t even think
twice about<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>it,” said Nicole M. Scherrer, a clinical assistant professor
of ophthalmology at the New Bolton Center of University of Pennsylvania School
of Veterinary<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Medicine.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Sports fans will recall human athletes who have competed
successfully with less-than-complete vision. Orioles <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>pitcher Chris Lee<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>is legally blind in one eye, as was <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Wesley Walker,<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>a New York Jets wide receiver in the 1970s and ’80s.
<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Bryan Berard,<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>a former NHL member, lost his eye playing hockey and came
back to the ice.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Because of how a horse’s vision works, losing an eye likewise
doesn’t have to end their athletic careers. We humans have small, round pupils
that allow<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>us to see very well front and center. But we don’t have very
good peripheral vision. Horses, by contrast, have the largest eyes of any land
mammals, and<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>their long, horizontal pupils allow them to get an enormous
view from side to side, said Janet L. Jones, a cognitive scientist who trains
horses and has<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>written about how horses see the world.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Additionally, while human eyes move in tandem and give us a
view of 140 or 150 degrees, horses can move their eyes separately for a view of
about 350 degrees.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Jones says to imagine you are holding up a piece of cardboard
with two small pinholes, centered to each of your eyes. You would easily see
what’s directly<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>in front of you, but nothing of what’s behind you or to the
side. To correspond to where a horse’s eyes would be located, you would crease
the cardboard<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>down the middle, and add two long slots on either
side.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>“You can see that you would get a totally different view of
the world,” she said. “And if you were just to imagine covering up the left slot
on your horse<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>cardboards, and then run in great big circles to the left,
you would have an idea of what this horse is attempting to do.”<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>So how does Patch do it? Scherrer said it has to do with that
extraordinary side vision.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>“Just because the one eye was removed doesn’t mean that they
can’t see anything on that side,” she says. “So if the left eye is removed, the
right eye<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>looks out in front, and can actually see a little bit to the
left as well.”<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Patch’s impairment could present a problem, Scherrer said,
“if a horse came out of nowhere and bumped him from the left side.” That’s
unlikely to happen,<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>because bumping another horse during a race constitutes a
foul. Also, Patch’s residual vision — and his jockey’s guidance — should prevent
contact.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Patch adjusted quickly after losing the eye, his trainer,
Todd Pletcher, <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>told the Blood-Horse.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>“And after a couple weeks we were like, ‘This horse is
fine,'” Pletcher said. “I mean, there is common sense stuff, like I don’t come
up to him without<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>letting him know I’m there. You don’t want to startle him,
things like that. But really, you really wouldn’t know it and you don’t really
have to do anything<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>special with him either from a rider standpoint on the track
or around the barn.”<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Patch doesn’t wear a prosthesis, but some one-eyed horses do.
There are two kinds for equine eyes, Scherrer said. One is an implant that a
surgeon puts<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>in the sunken hole, and then closes skin over it. That gives
the horse sort of a permanently mid-blink look that makes eyelessness tough to
detect. Surgeons<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>can also place a false eye in the socket, to give a horse the
appearance of having two eyes, more along the lines of a human glass eye.
Scherrer said those<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>are usually used in horses “that have a job based on their
appearance,” such as show horses competing in a class in which the animals and
riders are judged<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>on looks as well as performance.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>“Sometimes it just creeps people out to have the socket, but
obviously the horse doesn’t care either way,” she said.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>What’s more important is patience, said Scherrer, adding that
horses that have lost an eye adjust better when in familiar surroundings and
with known companions.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Scherrer has her own one-eyed horse, a former patient, and
she initially rode his best friend and led her horse along from the saddle. Now
they compete<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>over jumps.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>“I couldn’t ask for a better horse,” she said. “He is better
than the majority of two-eyed horses.”<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Scherrer cited a retrospective study based out of New Bolton
that followed up with horses that had had their eyes removed. The majority, she
said, went<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>back to doing the same thing they were doing before they lost
the eye. Those that didn’t were stymied by a perception that they’d be too
changed to do<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>the same job, not because of any evidence that they
couldn’t.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>“It definitely makes me very happy for [Patch] to go out and
do this successfully and show people that horses with one eye adjust amazingly,”
Scherrer<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>said. “They’re so much more adjustable than
humans.”<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Correction: An earlier version of this story provided
inaccurate information about the size of horses’ eyes. It has been
corrected.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>