[MSAR] Night Lights Test

tm'-fi TFinkle at erols.com
Thu Mar 4 16:14:42 EST 2004


Hi Terry,

Thank you for sharing your test procedures and results.  One question, 
when you repeated test #2, did you also retest Test # 1 as a similar 
comparison during the second round of testing?

On another note, I know the "cone and rods" of a human eye is much 
different than that of a horse's eye.  Because of these structure 
differences between the two, does any one know what effect (if any) that 
a soft red light has on a horse eye and to their night vision?  I know 
from looking at different animals (including horses), when they are  
looking at my (red) light, the density of the reflection seems to looks 
completely different in nature than that of a "white" light that is 
shown in their eyes.  

Thanks,

Tomi'
TROT Search & Rescue Mounted Team
State of Maryland

wwfarm wrote:

> Although I have never seen a problem with properly adjusted low 
> hanging lights effecting
> the sight of horses, after some people showed a concern, last night I 
> decided to do a test.
>  
> Test Standards
> I did the test in my indoor riding arena. Let me tell you it was dark. 
> I believe it was very
> representative of a dark night with no moon light. The horse that I 
> chose for my test was
> one that I had only ridden once in the last six months. (I did not use 
> my personal riding
> horse.) This horse had never seen these obstacles until the very time 
> the test was started.
> For test #1 with lights on I used a three cell maglite equipped with 
> my special holder
> (http://www.airscentinghorse.com/parts.htm) mounted on each side of my 
> horse lower than
> knee level pointed slightly forward and downward as described in my 
> Night Lights Part ll. My
> goal was to cross a obstacle course, first with lights than without in 
> order to determine if
> correctly mounted lights effect the night vision of the horse.. (In 
> both test when ever I reached
> the tire maze I did not rein the horse at all. I only encouraged 
> forward moment with leg pressure.)
>  
> Test # 1  Using correctly adjusted lights mounted low on each side of 
> horse - Results
> Ten inch log step over       -  one click
> Six inch log walk over        - cleared perfect
> Weave through tire maze - cleared perfect.
>
> Test # 2  No lights, after the horse had about five minutes in total 
> darkness inorder
>  to let his eyes adjust. - Results
> Ten inch log step over       -  one click
> Six inch log walk over        - cleared perfect
> Weave through tire maze - The horse stepped on a tire.
>  
> I than repeated Test # 2 ( no lights) - I had the same results with 
> the horse tripping over a tire.
>
> Deduction -
> If the proper lights are positioned low on the side of the horse at a 
> downward angle,
> they do not hinder the horses near by sight and in certain cases they 
> may actually
> help the horses  sight when it comes to difficult  footing 
> areas. I believe it is the same
> as with people, if we held a flash light the sides of our head it 
> would blind us but if we hold it
> low  and downward it helps us. I totaly agree with the others that a 
> high held light like a hand
> held flash light or head lamp will negatively effect the horses vision 
> and could temporary blind him.
>  
> In many cases on a dark night the rider needs a consistent light 
> source on both sides of the horse for searching and navigating.
>  
> TER
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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