Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] Night Lights Test

msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Mounted search and rescue

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "wwfarm" <wwfarm@wiktel.com>
  • To: "Mounted search and rescue" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] Night Lights Test
  • Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 07:39:52 -0800

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





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page