One of the most difficult pony conditions to handle is COPD, or simply horse heaves, particularly because the physical pain the steed suffers from in an attack can be very intense. A COPD attack during equestrian sport can cause a pony to pull out of competition, what with sustained coughing, flared nostrils, difficulty breathing, and other symptoms of breathing trouble. You can forget about horse riding if your mare is all of a sudden gripped by heaves.

In the past generally aged horses suffered from heaves, though today, performance horses even in their prime may also be impacted by the dreadful near-equivalent of human asthma. What this implies for equestrians is a sustained risk for fouling up in competition, and disturbances waiting to occur in other equestrian activities, even just plain horse riding. There are common ideas relating to heaves—particularly about its causes and permanence. COPD is thought to be triggered by antigens like mould or dust or hay—a more omnipresent factor in horse care and coaching. But observing performance horses and those with sensitive personalities and corresponding lung or respiration weakness will lead one to believe that stress—both emotional and physical, and it’s often true that both are at work at the same time—can also be a trigger for COPD attacks. Also, heaves still has to be demonstrated to be permanently curable, but its symptoms in an attack can be alleviated and even pre-empted.

Some horses simply have feeble lungs and respiration systems. These parts are most affected when they are introduced to intense scenarios. The hay or other allergens may still play a role, but we’ll target the stress-related factor, which may actually point out why performance horses that undergo severe coaching for accurate equestrian sport develop the condition. Horses have parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous states. The parasympathetic nervous state is what’s ‘turned on ‘ in horses in a normal situation. But when reason to be alarmed turns up, they flip from parasympathetic to sympathetic state to engage the nerve-wrangling stimuli with either the flight or fight reaction. Some horses experience attacks of heaves as soon as they are going into the sympathetic nervous state.

Emotional and physical stress are indeed factors that develop and trigger heaves. If you have a mare that’s feeble in the lungs and rattles in the chest, then you have got a prime candidate for heaves. The simple act of horse riding in an unfamiliar environ can cause her to breathe heavier and start coughing.

Fortunately , there are ways to combat and alleviate COPD symptoms and effects, specifically in the form of administering adrenal supporting supplements; supplements like Eleviv. Eleviv can help relieve effects of heaves in seconds, and can also pre-empt them by being present in feed or administered through syringe before undergoing an equestrian activity or training exercise that could potentially put stress on the horse. Depending on the horse, you may even start feeding hay again so long as Eleviv is being administered.

Horses are Heather Toms’ passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100’s of articles with other horse lovers… like all things about cheap horse rugs