Ailments

respiratory / breathing problems such as Recurrent Airways Obstruction (RAO or COPD (1) (2)), allergic airways disease, asthma, broken wind, fast / heavy / hard / noisy breathing, heaves, hyperventilation

hay fever, headshaking / tossing (1) (2), (video), snorting, runny eyes, yawning, allergies to foods, chemicals etc

nasal discharge, EIPH; blocked sinuses

cough; chronic cough (1) (2) (3) (4), cough on exercise

sweet itch (1) (2), reactions to midge bites

skin conditions, mud fever, rain scald, nose rash

skin hypersensitivity (eg to grooming and touch)

poor healing of injuries,

sarcoids, warts

lethargy (1) (2), post viral weakness, erratic energy

digestive problems, colic, choke

hormonal eg lack of season in mares, lack of coat changes

photosensitivity

shivering, back weakness

tying up, azoturia

cystitis

weight problems; over or under, poor condition,

fitness (1) (2)

EPSM - Equine Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy

metabolic syndrome

Cushing's syndrome

older horse problems

wind sucking (1) (2), video, Facebook group

separation anxiety

anxiety, spookiness,

travel stress, competition nerves

fear

agitation

agression (1) (2), bad temper

phobias; cow phobia, rope phobia

poor concentration

laziness

erratic behaviour

hypersensitivity eg to grooming or touch

headshaking / tossing / nodding (1) (2)

nose rubbing, snorting

stereotypic behaviour such as box walking, weaving

difficult to handle, trim, shoe, load, clip

box rest

napping

bolting, barging (1) (2)

excessive yawning

cribbing

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Try Equine Breathing for yourself

Whether you are involved in racing, showing, eventing, show jumping, dressage, endurance, horsemanship, driving, polo or pony club, Equine Breathing could help you to improve your horse's performance.

How Equine Breathing can help

• de-stressing and calming the horse during preparation, travel and at the competition
• literally warming up the muscles before performance
• increased removal of lactic acid from muscle cells before and during performance
• leading to reduced risk of injury (tired muscles) or tying up (too much lactic acid)
• and increased suppleness and ability
• maintaining effective nerve and brain functioning allowing better concentration, problem solving and response to the rider
• facilitating rapid healing of competition or training injuries and of unsightly scars
• increasing fitness and cutting down recovery time
• promoting correct muscle formation; healthy skin, coat and demeanour
• increasing stamina and endurance

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Why it works

How to use Equine Breathing to improve performance

Benefits of Equine Breathing for Endurance Riding

Healing from injury or trauma

Always follow your vet's advice on diagnosis and treatment but if your horse has suffered an injury, trauma or serious illness Equine Breathing may help the healing process and recovery, and soothe and calm.

The breathing of a horse that has been ill or injured tends to increase because stress encourages over breathing. Over breathing lowers carbon dioxide levels. This may be compounded if the horse's natural movement is restricted (eg box rest) as the body is unable to produce normal amounts of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is fundamental to maintaining normal physiology.

The idea is that the healing process is most efficient when the physiology is normal. Equine Breathing helps to reduce breathing back towards normal which returns carbon dioxide levels up towards normal which in turn brings the physiology towards normal. more...

Stressful events

Despite your best efforts to protect your horse, stressful situations are sometimes unavoidable. Events such as weaning, moving home, travelling, losing a companion, competitions, or even being ridden or left behind, can be stressful.

Some horses deal with stress with responses such as separation anxiety or stable vices such as cribbing.

Horses generally become calmer as their breathing pattern improves, so that stress stimuli have less effect and the stress response dininishes.

A horse that is accustomed to going into the calm, relaxed 'anabolic' state during regular Equine Breathing sessions will more readily calm down during stressful events when Equine Breathing is used.

'Stable vices'

One response of horses that over breathe is to increase their physical activity and muscle use. This may be in stereotypic behaviour such as weaving, box walking, wind sucking, cribbing or other repetitive action. 

Its seems likely that because the increased muscle activity of these behaviours produces extra carbon dioxide it's the body's attempt to counter the damaging loss of carbon dioxide caused by chronic over breathing.

Equine Breathing reduces the loss of carbon dioxide and allows levels to build up, reducing the need for the continuous activity. 

Equine Breathing also helps to soothe and calm the horse, enabling it to come out of the adrenalised state that drives the continuous activity.

NOT wind sucking in a favourite wind sucking location, thanks to use of the Equine Breather.

more...

Safety

The calming effect of Equine Breathing makes it less likely for horses to become dangerously frightened, making them safer to ride and handle.

Equine Breathing can be used on horses that get upset in situations such as loud noises, traffic, travelling, being left alone etc. Reactions such as bolting, barging, spooking, aggressive attacks and loss of attention to the handler can be improved.

Aggressive behaviour towards other horses may be improved using Equine Breathing.

Age

Old horses are likely to benefit from Equine Breathing even if they cannot achieve a full recovery.  Foals can start 1N from any age as long as the usual rule is followed, that the foal enjoys the session.

Pregnancy

To be on the safe side it is not recommended to use Equine Breathing during pregnancy unless your vet advises it.  We hope to carry out trials under veterinary supervision to determine what level of Equine Breathing is suitable for pregnant mares.