VioletStripe
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
Asking for some general advice per the title. Happy to have some speculation as to similar experiences, too - but very much waiting for the vet! Sorry this is going to be a long one, to be honest it's good for me to type it out as I am a) a nervous wreck about this and b) it helps be get my timeline together to speak with my vet....
My horse was off work during the start of lockdown due to the yard being shut to the general public, however he was kept ticking over with a few horse walking sessions a week. He is an overgrown, 13yo Connemara gelding.
I then started to bring him into work.. gosh, 5 or so weeks ago. Starting with just walking etc, and reasonably quickly progressed to some trot work after 2 weeks as he is out all day on a sloping hill in a herd of 7 boys (lunatics), and had been on the horse walker a lot. Here's where things started to get a bit strange... He would have a dry, occasional cough with the trotting, particularly uphill. It was whenever things started to get vaguely difficult cardio-wise. I would always bring back to walk, and the trot was for such short periods it wouldn't trigger more anyway. It's a dry cough, no mucus, no heaving, sneezing etc. He had before once in a blue moon done it before in some warm-ups, and to never to do it again - my old vet and old instructor referred to it as 'clearing the pipes' when he would start to settle and work long and low in the warm-up. It was a one-off very occasionally at the start of training sessions.
However now, 3 weeks on, it's more prevalent as we are trying to do more. At first since coming back into work it was happening around once in the sessions towards the start, which I always took as his old 'pipe clearing', even though it was more frequent as it happened in more sessions, I assumed since being out of work that would make sense, so left it a few weeks to see... It's now been 2/3 weeks and I feel like as the trot is going for longer, adding in the occasional burst of canter to build up, it is getting worse. It's whenever he starts to find it more difficult. So he will trot for a little longer before coughing as his fitness has improved, but then will start to cough, and from then on in the sessions he will cough more and more - canter is a no-go this week, really. So, I have decided to get the vet out as this is clearly not normal. I'm not pushing him unfairly beyond his fitness level IMO, I'm not hammering him so he is out of breath and puffing and wheezing away...
He has never had a problem before, and it seems to be more with finding things difficult - particularly if we are doing some hillwork, for example. It's never happened in walk (even uphill), or at rest at all - I think he coughed once at rest and that was after literally pushing his face into a dusty corner on the edge of my car when I had the boot open and had him standing next to me while I grabbed something - and in typical nosy Connemara fashion, he found a huge bit of dust and pollen on my dirty car to shove his nose into. It also doesn't matter if we are in the school, or out hacking, or if it has rained/is raining/is completely dry. He is ridden in a nose net and has been for years due to flies.
Management-wise nothing has changed, he is out all day on his slope with his merry band of lunatics. He comes in around 4, and then is fed damp Hifi with some pink powder. I exercise in the evenings after work, generally around 6 or 7 - also tend to on the weekends so I don't interrupt turnout and can make the most of light evenings in lockdown. Fabulous quality hay fed from the floor, and a very clean straw bed in a large barn which always has the doors at either end open. It's literally just come on since May. No coughing or wheezing inside, no mucus, or difficulty breathing either. I groom both in his stable and out, depending on how busy the yard is. Never a problem, no correlation to if he has been groomed inside or out either. Fully vaccinated and up to date with all the usual forms of saddle/physio/dentist - and in no way unwell, completely his usual nosy self. Despite the cough, he is absurdly keen as usual for exercise - he's not unwilling at all.
I will be ringing the vet on Monday for a visit at some point this week. My question is - since it is exercise-induced, would you continue to just walk, or stop everything completely? I will be asking to have his hay soaked, I would rather not switch to Haylage as he is at a lovely weight now and if I can't up his exercise to counter that then that's a pain... I suppose switching to shavings would be a good idea too, even though the majority of the barn are straw as well. I guess I could muzzle him to go out, and then feed haylage... it soaked hay or haylage better, generally? There are no outdoor stables to switch to, all are in barn set-ups.
So - thoughts on exercise or not? Anything else I can be doing in the meantime? Any similar experiences?
Asking for some general advice per the title. Happy to have some speculation as to similar experiences, too - but very much waiting for the vet! Sorry this is going to be a long one, to be honest it's good for me to type it out as I am a) a nervous wreck about this and b) it helps be get my timeline together to speak with my vet....
My horse was off work during the start of lockdown due to the yard being shut to the general public, however he was kept ticking over with a few horse walking sessions a week. He is an overgrown, 13yo Connemara gelding.
I then started to bring him into work.. gosh, 5 or so weeks ago. Starting with just walking etc, and reasonably quickly progressed to some trot work after 2 weeks as he is out all day on a sloping hill in a herd of 7 boys (lunatics), and had been on the horse walker a lot. Here's where things started to get a bit strange... He would have a dry, occasional cough with the trotting, particularly uphill. It was whenever things started to get vaguely difficult cardio-wise. I would always bring back to walk, and the trot was for such short periods it wouldn't trigger more anyway. It's a dry cough, no mucus, no heaving, sneezing etc. He had before once in a blue moon done it before in some warm-ups, and to never to do it again - my old vet and old instructor referred to it as 'clearing the pipes' when he would start to settle and work long and low in the warm-up. It was a one-off very occasionally at the start of training sessions.
However now, 3 weeks on, it's more prevalent as we are trying to do more. At first since coming back into work it was happening around once in the sessions towards the start, which I always took as his old 'pipe clearing', even though it was more frequent as it happened in more sessions, I assumed since being out of work that would make sense, so left it a few weeks to see... It's now been 2/3 weeks and I feel like as the trot is going for longer, adding in the occasional burst of canter to build up, it is getting worse. It's whenever he starts to find it more difficult. So he will trot for a little longer before coughing as his fitness has improved, but then will start to cough, and from then on in the sessions he will cough more and more - canter is a no-go this week, really. So, I have decided to get the vet out as this is clearly not normal. I'm not pushing him unfairly beyond his fitness level IMO, I'm not hammering him so he is out of breath and puffing and wheezing away...
He has never had a problem before, and it seems to be more with finding things difficult - particularly if we are doing some hillwork, for example. It's never happened in walk (even uphill), or at rest at all - I think he coughed once at rest and that was after literally pushing his face into a dusty corner on the edge of my car when I had the boot open and had him standing next to me while I grabbed something - and in typical nosy Connemara fashion, he found a huge bit of dust and pollen on my dirty car to shove his nose into. It also doesn't matter if we are in the school, or out hacking, or if it has rained/is raining/is completely dry. He is ridden in a nose net and has been for years due to flies.
Management-wise nothing has changed, he is out all day on his slope with his merry band of lunatics. He comes in around 4, and then is fed damp Hifi with some pink powder. I exercise in the evenings after work, generally around 6 or 7 - also tend to on the weekends so I don't interrupt turnout and can make the most of light evenings in lockdown. Fabulous quality hay fed from the floor, and a very clean straw bed in a large barn which always has the doors at either end open. It's literally just come on since May. No coughing or wheezing inside, no mucus, or difficulty breathing either. I groom both in his stable and out, depending on how busy the yard is. Never a problem, no correlation to if he has been groomed inside or out either. Fully vaccinated and up to date with all the usual forms of saddle/physio/dentist - and in no way unwell, completely his usual nosy self. Despite the cough, he is absurdly keen as usual for exercise - he's not unwilling at all.
I will be ringing the vet on Monday for a visit at some point this week. My question is - since it is exercise-induced, would you continue to just walk, or stop everything completely? I will be asking to have his hay soaked, I would rather not switch to Haylage as he is at a lovely weight now and if I can't up his exercise to counter that then that's a pain... I suppose switching to shavings would be a good idea too, even though the majority of the barn are straw as well. I guess I could muzzle him to go out, and then feed haylage... it soaked hay or haylage better, generally? There are no outdoor stables to switch to, all are in barn set-ups.
So - thoughts on exercise or not? Anything else I can be doing in the meantime? Any similar experiences?