A blind horse Endo of the Appaloosa breed has created three new world records. According to the Guinness World Records, the horse "is touching the world with more than just his good-natured demeanour and striking brown speckles."
The 22-year-old from Oregon is known as Endo the Blind. His newly achieved records include the highest free jump by a blind horse, the most flying changes by a horse in one minute, and the fastest time for a blind horse to weave five poles.
His owner Morgan Wagner noticed that his eyes were watering up frequently at the age of eight. He was also squinting a lot. Soon a veterinarian diagnosed Endo with equine recurrent uveitis aka moon blindness - the most common cause of vision loss in horses. It is considered to be a complex autoimmune disease influenced by both genetic and environmental factors.
Within a span of a few months, he lost both eyes. The right eye ruptured first and Wagner had to choose to remove it. Soon, the left eye also started creating problems and had to be removed. Endo had to relearn to navigate the world without vision, states the GWR website.
Wagnor says he learned to jump again because he competed in a discipline that required upper-level riding and obstacle work. He went on to become the national champion at the highest level. She recalled that she was 13 years old when her grandmother promised her a horse and she met Endo as a foal on the farm. "He had the most charisma and pranced around the other horses." The two have been fast friends since then.
It is her hope that Endo's story will inspire people to emphasise the abilities of blind horses and overlook their limitations.