How does my breathing affect my horse?

Unless you can comfortably pause after a normal sized OUT breath without needing to breathe for 45 seconds or more, and then take only a normal IN breath (not a big gasp), you over breathe according to Professor Buteyko. 

Most people do.

If you over breathe it is likely that your horse will to some extent copy this and vice versa.  It is easily possible for horse and owner to get into a spiral of deteriorating breathing patterns.

Since over breathing causes symptoms and problems this is not a good situation.

From your point of view, over breathing may exacerbate any chronic conditions such as asthma, migraine, allergies, fatigue etc. Your muscles may be stiffer and tenser than they should be, you may be short tempered and irritable and have difficulty concentrating. 

You may find your fitness is not as good as you would like, you run out of puff easily and tend to ride with an open mouth. 

These effects obviously affect your ability to ride and handle your horse.

In difficult, stressful situations the handler often talks to the horse thinking that this calms the horse. 

In fact people over breathe more when they talk than when they keep their mouth closed so over breathing problems such as tension and irritability are exacerbated. 

Horses do not understand the meaning of words, they pick up on the tension, irritability and fear in the voice and these are not reassuring.

Competing can be a stressful situation and stress encourages over breathing. Many riders find they have to breathe through their mouth when they compete. If you are one of these riders you are probably reducing your own and your horse’s performance and increasing the tendency to develop or exacerbate chronic ailments.

Equine Breathing is available for your horse.

There are several things you can do to help.

Keep your mouth shut and don't talk to your horse. This will cut down your loss of carbon dioxide, which will reduce stress and enable you to relax and focus 

Talking is not necessary for communication with the horse as body language is the primary means of communication. Horses don't after all, understand the meaning of words (although they may be taught to act on the sound of certain commands). If you wish to use words as commands then just use the word on its own.

Gradually train yourself to keep your mouth shut through increasingly strenuous activity until you can keep your mouth shut through all your riding and handling situations.

When doing Equine Breathing, keep your own breathing as gentle as possible.

Recover normal breathing yourself with Buteyko breathing training.

If your horse has intractable over breathing symptoms such as wind sucking or cribbing, recovering normal breathing yourself may have a significant impact on their recovery.

Any human/equine partnership that works to regain normal breathing for both partners can hope for significant improvements in health, fitness and even other aspects such as creativity.

Matthew keeping his mouth shut and reducing his own breathing while doing 1N with Sam