Spotlight On The Performance Horse

The Kentucky Horse Council sponsored a day long seminar “Spotlight On the Performance Horse.” Included in this seminar were topics covering many areas as they relate to performance horses. Topics ranged from controlling air quality to EPM, from

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The Kentucky Horse Council sponsored a day long seminar “Spotlight On the Performance Horse.” Included in this seminar were topics covering many areas as they relate to performance horses. Topics ranged from controlling air quality to EPM, from the importance of the thyroid gland and health care strategies for performance horses to keeping joints healthy. Also included were two round table sessions, one geared to the business side of owning performance horses. It covered such facets as liability, insurance, contracts, and management strategies for running a professional horse operation. The other discussion session focused on equine sports therapy and the diagnostic tools and non-traditional therapies available in the equine industry.


Bob Coleman, PhD, opened the morning session with his presentation “Breathing Better: Controlling Air Quality In Horse Areas.” While most of us take for granted the air we breathe, those with asthma and other respiratory diseases do not. We also take for granted the air our horses breathe; however, many of our management practices are counterproductive to provide the horse with the best quality of air. As a result, many horses develop respiratory ailments that can range from mild to severe. There is much we can do to insure that our horses receive the optimum advantages for breathing good quality air. If we want our equines to be able to perform at their highest level, we must eliminate those elements of their environment which inhibit their ability to move large volumes of air while engaged in active work.


There are factors that we can control that can help to eliminate many causes of respiratory problems, especially the ammonia, dusts, and molds that can lead to such diseases as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD or heaves) and lower respiratory tract infection.


The first factor is the environment. Horses, by nature’s design, are meant to spend their life outdoors where there is more air circulation and less chance for contamination with foreign particles. Yet, in our efforts to provide more comfort for the animal (perhaps the human animal lies foremost in our desires), we bring our horses in to stable them from the elements and thereby expose them to far worse conditions than a brisk, northerly wind or other harsh climatic events

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