11/30/2025
Intro to Blind Spots and Changing Eyes
It is fairly rare for me to meet a horse who isn’t troubled in their blind spots and I feel that this is perfectly reasonable. In my experience, every horse is… until we show them how not to be. It’s a hefty responsibility as I’ve not seen horses provide this gift amongst themselves, to one another. From what I’ve observed, it’s in the best interest of the band for all its members to be hyper vigilant to a degree in their blind spots. And for a horse who lives in isolation, a necessity for survival.
A horse’s blind spots are located directly in front, directly behind, under their chin/feet and directly behind their neck (you know, where we sit!). While a horse’s left brain and right brain do communicate beyond that of basic nervous system function, they perceive the world so differently than we do, and left brain/left horse and right brain/right horse aren’t able to share all the information that each side is gathering and processing. For example, have you ever been riding in an arena, tracking left, and you pass the corner where the scary horse-soul eating monster lives and the muck bucket is in a slightly different position and your horse spooks and shies to the left/inside? So you school a bit and the horse settles so you ride on maybe across the diagonal or whatever but you end up back down at the scary corner tracking right this time and your horse spooks again? And you think, “silly horse, we already saw this and got over it!”. Well… right horse had seen the bucket, had realized it wasn’t a threat and was now fine with it. Left horse on the other hand, straight up wasn’t able to see it coming and had their own experience with it. This is appropriate behaviour for a horse.
As with all beings, I have observed horses to have strong sympathetic nervous system responses of fight, flight and freeze. I’ve noticed that a horse, when confronted with a suspicious or threatening stimuli from a distance, will turn and move away in Flight mode, increasing the distance between them and the suspected threat. They will look back over their shoulder, leaning in to the direction of travel while flexing away from the direction of travel. When they switch sides to look over their other shoulder (changing eyes behind), they also slightly alter course + flexion and lean. Once enough distance has been reached, the horse will turn sidelong to the threat (usually but not always their left side) and turn their head back and forth, left and right, (changing eyes in front). Left Eye and Right Eye each get a good look. Once the stimuli is no longer an obvious threat, the horse might turn and face up to it, continuing to look side to side, left eye right eye. If they deem that all is well with everything and they are safe, they may poke out their nose and show some curiosity.
I have noticed as well that a horse, when confronted with a threatening stimuli in close proximity, may turn and flee or may freeze. They might. They are just as likely to push into the pressure, to go into Fight mode and drop their shoulder, strike, bite or otherwise go on the offensive. This is why I tend to be much more wary of a horse’s front end, particularly when the horse has become bothered in their blind spots and troubled about confinement and contact to a point that goes beyond their base instinct.
The freeze response is my least favorite and it’s the reason why I don’t engage in or advocate for desensitization. A horse who freezes and checks out mentally may seem “bomb proof” for a time, but are often the ones who become the most explosive. Besides, horses are my friends and I don’t really want anyone, especially my friends, to be desensitized to me.
Horses are born bothered in their blind spots and different than us in their left and right body communication*. Like us, they have a sidedness, a laterality in their way of going. Whether it be from fetal development in the womb, birth trauma, grazing stance, injury or illness, horses too have a preferred “lead” and they very much have a dominant “eye”. It’s strange to me that as humans, we communicate so much through our eye contact but when I watch people working with horses in hand or at liberty, I so rarely see the same. The human tends to focus on the shoulder, the hip, the neck, the feet, but what is the eye doing? Half the time, it’s not even looking at the human and the human wouldn’t notice if it were!
The eye is what shapes and guides the movement. When I watch an uneducated horse turn (ie feral, young, miseducated), whether it be loose (in a field, a round pen or arena, even when grazing!), on a lunge or lead line or under saddle, the horse turns by leaning in and looking out. They are aware of the direction they are turning and as it holds the least amount of real estate and since they know what’s there, they are inclined to look out, over their outside shoulder at the expanse behind and beside them. Their shoulders drop forward and in, the more aggressive end leading, the hindquarters exposed, following, angled slightly to the outside. This is fine for the horse left to their own devices, as they do not engage in movements such as circles. This is turning as they were meant to turn and they’re all exceptionally good at it. Trouble is, when they turn this way under rider weight, especially when held on a continuous arc like a circle, it creates massive compression in areas that aren’t designed to manage it. This is why horse and rider biomechanics are so important and so intricate. It is my belief that an overwhelming number of soundness issues in the ridden horse are due to compression and compensation derived from this very thing. Until the horse feels safe, particularly in their blind spots, they will not look to the inside/in the direction of travel and therefor cannot, no matter how well masked through handy riding, gadgets and/or coercion, truly travel Straight ie- in balance with all four quarters evenly weighted and turned loose at the poll.
When left to their own devices, horses also do not travel in straight lines. Take a walk in any pasture, turnout, herd management area, and you will see that all horsey game trails drift slightly side to side, left and right. Unlike animals with binocular vision (ie humans and dogs), horses do not bee line on their trajectory, even at top speed though this is more subtle. Meaning, as they’re moving forward, they’re leading with one eye and then the other. And as they change eyes in front, they change eyes behind. Leading slightly left, slightly right. This is another example of the horse managing their environment. When we ask a horse to move either directly forward or directly backward and straight from poll to tail, we are asking them to move directly into their blind spots. Given this, it’s truly remarkable what they do with and for us.
It’s all about demonstrating to the horse that they can find comfort and support in the human and then being damn ready to step up for them when they do. This is why we chose to be Un-Natural Horsemanship. It is not in the horse’s nature to be ridden nor is it in our nature to ride, physiologically and psychologically. Yet both species are here and doing it. In order to become riders, humans must reprogram our biology and in order to be ridden, horses must allow us to reprogram their biology as well.
“Make the Halo, Jake!”
When working with young, feral or otherwise healthily attached horses, helping them to find the three types of confidence (confidence in themselves, in their environment and in their human),is relatively straightforward and painless for both species and work through blindspots and changing eyes plays a very large part in this. With the horses who have suffered, either through genuine abuse or simply just casually sh*tty or uneducated handling, it can be a different story*. Once a horse has learned that trouble can come for them in their blindspots from the human, working with them through that trauma can be a massive undertaking and changing eyes plays a very large part in this.
Over the years, Zak and I have learned and developed many different techniques or methods to teach horses about safety in their blind spots and how to change eyes in a way that fosters healthy carriage of a human. Our preference is to begin working with any and every horse loose in a smallish area (round pen is ideal but any small paddock or even a full size arena will do if it’s what we’ve got). At liberty, the horse is able to leave if and when they feel that they must and we are unable to overpower them. Ideally, all work will be done at the walk with upward transitions only coming when the horse as found balance however, it is completely reasonable for a horse to scoot after a change of eyes at first. We prefer to begin working with a horse on changing eyes behind. The change of eyes behind has been shown repeatedly to harbor the greatest effect, the strongest impression. When the horse is confident changing eyes behind, it translates into absolutely everything else, or at least this has been the case in our experience 100% of the time! When changing direction with the human guiding them from behind is easy peasy, we begin changing eyes in front as well, first at liberty and then in hand on a lead rope and eventually under saddle.
I have watched the profound impact of working a horse through their blind spots and through their change of eyes countless times and it never ceases to amaze me. Equally amazing is that the work sticks and this paired with ridden work and the education that comes from that, completely changes how horses move within and interact with their environment. They play better, they are less prone to injury, they are more eager to work. It changes the way that they organize their bodies and move through space in such a way as to translate into the rest of their lives and it is the coolest thing! The human must come to trust the horse and the horse to trust the human. When each feels safe, both can feel curious and can explore the infinite possibilities of Becoming Centaur.
~ Chiara 💕
Stay tuned for Zak’s “Changing Eyes Manifesto” which will go into great depth on the subject. For anyone interested in working with us on this and more, we offer haul-in, travel and virtual sessions as well as clinics and intensives.
* I encourage my students while on their own two feet, to raise one of their hands and tuck in their thumb with four fingers raised and held gently together. Place your thumb over your nose so your four fingers are directly between your eyes, creating a blind spot in front. Now, go for a 5 min walk. Anywhere but seriously- try it out in a busy environment. This isn’t a direct representation but it provides a decent bit of perspective. My students have shared that they experienced a desire to lead more from one eye, especially for maneuvering around in crowded spaces. For me, it’s my left eye. Many of us have reported a preference from side to side- for example, I felt comfortable with things moving from my right eye to my left eye but several times was surprised by something moving from my left eye to my right eye. On the daily, I observe this in the horses.
* Signs the horse may be bothered in their blind spots and troubled changing eyes-
bolting
difficulty with bend and/or canter leads
rushes or sucks back during changes of direction
undiagnosed front end lameness
difficulty backing
difficulty tracking a straight line
fidgeting while tied
pull back
difficulty loading
nervous to be mounted
excessive spookiness
over jumping
bothered around their feet/difficulty with the farrier
high headedness
drops shoulder/falls-in through turns/corners
kissing spines
rushes change of eyes/constantly arranging themselves or the human to be on one side or the other
