Help!! Glasses or Contacts?

Barbara F · Grand Prix

Help!! Glasses or Contacts?

IrideaClyde · Well Schooled

I ride with glasses, I have progressive bifocals as well. If you wear them as often as possible and as long as possible you will adjust to them.
Not sure how the prescriptions work if you can get contacts that have both distance correction and reading??? Honestly you will get used to the glasses. At times my glasses will fog up while riding and I simply remove them I can see distance well enough (not as crisp as with my glasses) but have trouble with things up close. So I prefer them on to do up bridle buckles etc... I ride inside during the winter and it can get very dusty in the indoor arena so not sure how well the contacts would perform in all those dust particles.
Hope this helped it is just my experience. Good Luck !!!

Jackie Cochran · Advanced

I ended up with three pairs of glasses, one reading, one for computer work, and one for everything else. With my MS I do not have the mental capacity to adapt to bi-focals or progressive lenses, I'm afraid I would end up falling down walking!

I used to use contacts, and the dust was always a problem. I tried contacts twice in my life, and I got much better vision that with glasses, but it was a relief in many ways to go back to glasses around the horses.

Nikki Salo · Grand Prix

Hey Barb,

Not sure if I can help really, since I don't wear glasses (yet) -- could you maybe get contacts for when you're doing stuff like karate and wear your glasses at other times?

On a side note, I think glasses look classy! My best friend wears glasses and so does my younger sister, they both look classy and smart -- not that they aren't classy and smart to begin with aww

Diamond_Jubilee · Well Schooled

I wear glasses- well I used to! I hate wearing glasses to the barn or when Im riding because in the winter they fog up when you enter the barn and in the summer they are always sliding down your face! I have been wearing glasses for pretty much my whole life and I just love my contacts. It took me a while to get them as I have only been wearing them for the past 5 years because I just hated the idea of touching my eyes. I got over it pretty quickly and I have never had them get stuck or not been able to take them out. Just remember to not sleep with them in as I had a quick nap once and they do stick to your eyes! I cant really see near or far so I always need to wear them. Im not too sure what happens when you need them for distances but not for reading. I guess you will have to ask your eye doctor and see what they say. I really want to get lazer surgery done....Maybe one day!

Marlene · Advanced

I have progressive glasses and fortunately adjusted fairly easily. They are pretty pricey so I am concerned about riding with them, but I can't function without, so I am considering some sort of strap to keep them snug. They always seem to slip just when Sharif is acting up. However years ago I rode with contacts and it was a disaster. The dust gets under the lenses and if you are on a ride you can't just pop them out. A process gets started under those conditions where your cornea is being seriously irritated, but you won't know it till after you take them out. It can be very bad, but my eyes recovered and I caught on to just sticking with glasses. Plus if you are switching back and forth with contacts and glasses, your eyes are probably never going to adjust to the progressives. Even taking them on and off throughout a normal day is probably affecting your ability to adjust.

Marlene · Advanced

I have wanted laser surgery for some time, but was too chicken. You should look into the actually percentage of people having problems with it. There was a documentary on TV recently about people who have had problems, apparently the companies involved have misrepresented the number of problems, some of which can't be reversed once they occur. This is your eyes, so they have to last your whole life. Even if you have met 99 people who had success, do you want to be that 1% who wasn't so lucky? The percentage with problems was actually quite a bit higher, around 10% i think, but you'd have to check that out. Of course the people doing the procedure aren't going to tell you how bad it could be. When I asked an real eye doctor about it once he said he didn't think the risks were acceptable. I guess he gets to treat the problem cases afterward.

knitty · Yearling

I have worn glasses while riding for the past 10 years. I've never had a problem, rain or shine (glasses are only annoying in the rain if you aren't wearing a hat with a peak). If they are adjusted properly you shouldn't have problems with them sliding down your nose.