Can horses see color?
Lady seems to prefer her dark blue saddle pad to her light blue saddle pad. Could it be she just likes dark blue better than light?
(She happens to look beautiful in both!) Come to think of it, she looks great in every color!
The pads are identical except for the color. We've examined them closely. There are no differences between the two pads. Here's a cool article about horse vision.
As it turns out, horses can see some color, though not all colors. They may see bright colors better. According to this article, they see grass as "a wishy-washy greenish-grey."
The article also explains why horses sometimes get nervous in windy weather. (I've experienced that more than once!) It's because as pray animals they're always watching for moving things. When it's windy, everything is moving!
Last year I went to a show and learned that one of the training level horses entered in the show was blind in one eye. He completed the stadium course beautifully. I was so impressed by his bravery, knowing that he must have been taking jumps he really couldn't see very well. He must have really trusted his rider.
Another horse was owned by an older guy. They were so cute together. They also showed training, and afterwards he told us that he had rescued his horse a couple of years earlier. When he found the horse she was almost dead. Her previous owners had nearly starved her to death. What an amazing story.
And, before I forget, thank you Amy, for sending me this article!
Madison
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