Sorry, I Couldn't Hear You

 I am pretty sure that Phantom is deaf.

It's one of those things that I'm noticing more and more these days, and when I think back I wonder if she's been like this for a while. She's always been kind of bombproof - she's never been one to react to loud/sudden sounds. (Lights in a weird place, however...)

She's actually got the markings and breeding to be predisposed to congenital deafness. She's a paint, with a mostly white head and two blue eyes. There is a much higher chance of a horse with these markings being born deaf.

Phantom's baby picture, where you can see her white face. 

In the past it wasn't something I was concerned about - she definitely seemed to hear when I used the clicker and a treat would be forthcoming. There was the odd time when she would be snoozing when I went out to catch her and I would talk to her as I approached and realize that she had no clue that I was there, so I would touch her shoulder and she would startle and give me a "where the fuck did you come from?" look, but I chalked that up to her just having a good sleep.

So, what's changed?

For about the last year, whenever I go out to get Phantom she is super happy to see me. She comes up to me, talking the whole way. Since she moved in with Cisco it's become a competition between the two of them to try to get to me first, and the horse that gets to me second usually puts themself between me and the other horse, hoping that I'll bring them in.

This is pretty consistent behavior for Phantom. Like 19 out of 20 times. 

Unless she doesn't see me. 

If she is standing in the shelter, or behind the round bale, and she can't see the gate, I get no response from her. I'll call her, and talk out loud the whole way out to her, and she doesn't make any attempt to look around the obstacle that's blocking my approach. As soon as I am in her path of vision, she nickers at me and is excited to see me. 

It's happened a few times over the last few months. 

It was back in October that I first started wondering if she had lost her hearing. I tried to make some noises behind her to see if she reacted, but she tends to be very attentive towards me (doesn't want to miss the possibility of a cookie suddenly appearing) so it's hard for me to test her. I had someone help me one day by standing behind her while I was standing in front, and it was inconclusive. 

I thought I would try a ride using voice commands and see if she responded to them. She did - "and walk" definitely gave me a downward transition. I tried really hard to not change anything in my body when I asked her to walk, but I can't be 100% sure that I didn't. She's quite sensitive to changes in my position so it doesn't take much to have her slow down, but I did think it was due to the voice command. 

So I'm not sure if she's newly deaf, always been deaf, going deaf, hard of hearing, or just has selective hearing. I'm leaning towards the newly deaf/going deaf/hard of hearing options.

Last week she didn't notice me until I appeared around the round bale she had her head buried into, despite me calling to her. On Sunday I unintentionally dropped a bucket on the floor behind her and didn't see a reaction, so I walked further down the barn, waited until she was looking the other direction and both ears were perked forward, then banged the bucket against a wall out of her line of sight. No ear flick back towards me.

Yesterday I tried another test. The barn was quite busy and her attention wasn't so much on me as it usually is. I grabbed a small bucket from the tack room and threw some crunchy treats in it and kept it behind my back. She was looking the other direction as I approached, shaking the bucket. Her ears did swivel back towards me, but she didn't get excited about the potential treat sound. 

I ducked into a stall behind her so she couldn't see the bucket and continued to shake the bucket. She didn't move - her butt was towards me. She looked at me momentarily but not with much interest. 

After a couple of minutes of hanging out in the stall, Phantom had her head turned slightly left looking at something. I put the bucket in front of me, came out of the stall, and walked along her right side, starting at her butt, shaking the bucket. She didn't react to me until I got almost to her shoulder, which would have been in her line of sight. 

As the person who was watching me stated, it seemed pretty conclusive that she didn't hear me, especially considering how food-oriented she is. 

What does this mean going forward?

First, there appears to be no treatment for it. No such thing as horse hearing aids. It is what it is.

I'm pretty sure Phantom will be totally fine with it. She's not a horse who startles easily, so someone suddenly popping up in her field of vision isn't likely to freak her out or cause her to be dangerous. 

I mean, if this happened I would totally expect her to spook. But that's probably about the only thing that would do it!

I'll talk to the vet about it when she gets her vaccinations done in a couple of months. It could be just age or the congenital paint horse issue, but it could also be a tumor. I don't think that they will be able to run the electronic test that would give me a definitive answer, but the tumor thing has me a bit concerned (you know, since she's a gray horse).

The biggest change will be in how I work with her. I've never really relied on voice commands with her of any sort because she has always been so tuned in to my body language; they've been used in conjunction with each other. It will be under saddle that will be the hardest to remember that she doesn't hear my cluck or whoa, or figuring out something to use instead of a clicker if I want to continue with some of her "tricks" that she enjoys. 

Maybe we take up mounted shooting?

We'll see. I'll hop on her in the next few days and see how she reacts to voice. 

I've dealt with a blind horse before, and now it looks like a deaf one. I hope Cisco doesn't turn out to be dumb!