Why don't horses where goggles?

[kasparov]

It’s common to see jump jockeys spattered with mud after a race and they sometimes wear more than one pair of goggles. But surely horses need eye protection too? What stops their vision being obscured by mud? Is it the fact their eyes are on the side of the head?

Anyway my guess is that in heavy conditions prominent runners will do better than the rest because they will suffer less mud being kicked back at them. Kickback must be offputting even if it doesn’t go into their eyes. If anyone has any stats on this issue that would be interesting.

[apracing]

Some do, especially on the AW tracks. The technical term used is eyeshields rather than goggles, denoted by an ‘e’ or ‘e/s’ on the racecard. There were two horses so equipped in the last race at Wolves yesterday evening.

[Purwell]

If horses wore goggles similar to the jockeys they would soon be obscured by mud and no way of wiping them.

I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways

[Author]

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