We have a Standardbred stallion that had a minor neurologic episode a few months ago that was never really figured out. He has recovered slowly back to normal, except that he has gone completely blind. He does well at pasture and you would hardly know he’s blind. But we had planned to start breeding him this year. Can we train this blind stallion–who has never bred before–for semen collection? via e-mail

I’ve only worked with a couple of completely blind stallions, and they did really well at breeding. My intuition is that blind horses adjust amazingly well. They can do tasks they already know and learn new ones. I have worked in some learning experiments with horses that have worn full blinder cups to block vision after they had learned a task, and it’s pretty amazing how well they do at a task they already know. We sometimes use a full blindfold to calm extremely rowdy stallions when training them to breed, and they seem to do really well at mounting and breeding if guided up to the mount. So my intuition is that this horse could learn to breed.

You will want a very skilled team in a safely enclosed facility. A lot will depend on how excited he gets and if he gets unwieldy or can take direction from the handler. You might want to try ground semen collection as an alternative to mounting