Blind Horses Set Three Guinness World Records: “They’re Still Able To Do Anything”

A 22-year-old blind Appaloosa horse named Ando holds three Guinness World Records.

Endo, also known as “Ando the Blind”, set the record for highest free jump by a blind horse at 3 feet and 5.73 inches, most flight changes in one minute by a blind horse, with 39 changes with, and the fastest time a blind horse would weave five poles was 6.93 seconds.

Endo’s success story took time and effort, said owner Morgan Wagner, who met the horse when she was just 13 years old. According to Wagner, Endo was diagnosed with glaucoma, a cataract and a common disorder in horses called equine recurrent uveitis, when he was 8 years old. Five years later, he was completely blind.

Wagner said he had blindfolded Endo before he could ease him into it if he lost his sight, but it was still an adjustment.

“Initially he was very scared, so I took him for a walk around the barn and then a walk around the property,” Wagner told Guinness World Records.

He said that he finally got his confidence back to do the things he used to love like competing and jumping. Wagner told Guinness World Records that Endo’s previous experience in competitions in which he “became national champion at the highest level” helped him learn to jump again.

“They are still capable of doing anything,” Wagner said of the blind horses.

According to the UC Davis Center for Equine Health, equine recurrent uveitis is the leading cause of blindness in horses. Appaloosas are eight times more likely than other horse breeds to have recurrent uveitis—but the disease hasn’t stopped Endo from doing everything sighted horses can do.