Does your horse have a chronic ailment such as hay fever, sweet itch or colic; or behavioural problem such as cribbing, weaving or head shaking that resists treatments?

Competitive advantage for performance horses

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

Equine Breathing may help in the following ways;

• 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

Why it works                                                 

How to start using Equine Breathing

Download a free article on how to use Equine Breathing to improve competition performance

Benefits of Equine Breathing for Endurance Riding

Calm travelling

Ellen Kloos and Miss Galena at the EC in Pardubice, Czech Republic, August 06

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. 

The idea is that the healing process is affected by carbon dioxide levels and proceeds at optimal speed if the carbon dioxide levels are correct.  Click here  for why this is so.  

Stress involves adrenaline production which encourages deeper breathing and lowering of carbon dioxide levels. In addition, horses that are unable to move about or exercise produce less carbon dioxide and levels are likely to fall. Box rest may result in lowered carbon dioxide levels which reduces the rate of healing. 

Equine Breathing can help to maintain carbon dioxide levels and so helping healing to proceed at a faster rate. 

to find out 

how to do it 

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Despite your best efforts to protect your horse, stressful situations are sometimes unavoidable. Events such as weaning, moving home, travelling, losing a companion, or even being ridden or left behind, competitions and so on can be stressful, resulting in responses such as separation anxiety or stable vices.

Horses generally become calmer as their breathing pattern improves, so that stress stimuli are less effective 

A horse that is accustomed to going into the calm, relaxed 'anabolic' state in Equine Breathing sessions will be easier to calm in times of stress.

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. 

One theory is that increased muscle activity produces extra carbon dioxide and is 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 the Equine  Breather, at a favourite wind sucking location

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

Very 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 rules are adhered to and 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. 

It is hoped to carry out trials under veterinary supervision to determine what level of Equine Breathing is suitable for pregnant mares.