Roaring

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joshuaada

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Hi - would be very grateful for any info from any of you who have a horse who is a roarer.
Bought a beautiful Shire X last June, who passed a five stage vetting but noted the fact makes a noise which would only effect extensive fast work. The vet, who I have known for many years didn't really make a big deal about it as I only wanted him for dressage (lol, but his lateral work is really very good) hacking and sponsored rides. He is 10 years old, a tad overweight (we are working on it) and is ridden 4/5 times a week. A mixture of schooling, lessons and hacking.
His breathing is quite bad when schooling, even at the trot. Yet we can gallop across three fields and trot all the way home and he doesn't puff at all. I don't get it. The vet looked at him yesterday ( not the same vet in the practice and watched him lunge and didn't seem overley concerned. Basically keep his fitness levels up, watch his weight. No improvement, we will endoscope him in 4 weeks. I then made the fatal mistake of checking it out on the internet and frightening myself to death. One vet said it is progressive and get's worse. What do you all think. I love him to bits so he is here to stay anyway. Just a bit cross with the vet really. After spending over £200 on 5 stage vetting for him not to have explained the implications more clearly. Although experienced I have never come across a roarer or a whistler before.
Thank you all in advance X
 
I've had two.
You find it with heavy animals with thicker necks who tense their necks or overbend, they're basically crushing their own windpipe. One of mine ended up crushing his voice box and paralysed half of it, which unfortunatly meant even when he was relaxed, he still roared.
If the laryngitus is paralysed, a simple operation to tie it back is performed and the horse stops having such a problem with breathing. Ours didn't go for the operation as he was a very tense horse and the vet suggested letting both sides of the laryngitus paralise before operating on him, as it was likely the other side would go anyway.
Sounds much more like your horse is simply too tense when schooling and overbends, putting pressure on his windpipe. When he's galloping, he's relaxed, so there's no noise.
It is perfectly possible to school a horse without having it overbent, so I'd have a go at getting him to loosen up and find a natural outline that saves his breathing. If he does worsen, like I said, a simple operation will sort it out.
Good luck with him, though! It's horrible scary when you hear them going at it!
 
I'm actually looking at a roarer at the moment to purchase and to be honest i'm about to decide to walk away. Roaring is also caused from throat infections and the tieback operation in itself can cause problems. The way it works is when a horse takes an in breath both the larynx move out the way to allow the air to flow into the lungs. If one of the larynx is paralysed then only the good larynx will move out of the way therefore less air getting through and you hear the roar. The tieback op basically ties the paralysed larynx back but the down side of this is when eating, the larynx can no longer stop the food entering windpipe as it's tied back so WORSE CASE scenaire your horse will also inhale food. Don't mean to scare you but it's best you know what it's all about. The best way is for your horse to have endoscopy on a treadmill so they can see how the larynx works under pressue and take it from there. The op costs about £1500 and recovery time is min six weeks box rest and start work slowly again. Once fixed he will go on to do anything but best to get it done. Imagine how you'd feel working with not enough oxygen. You'd feel faint and dizzy!
 
ive had a horse thats had both a tieback and a hobday, your horse may only need a hobday,, there are also plenty of horses that roar, and dont have these ops and get on fine, my horse is a potential eventer and he would be asked to do extensive fast work and so had no choice but to have it done,, hes is absolutely fine
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is no diff to what he was before, tiny scare! no coughing (this varies from horse to horse) he has to be fed from the ground and have damped hay ect, my vet performed an endoscopy and was very clear he needed both tie back and hobday no need for treadmill!!!
 
Hi - your theory on why he is worse in the school is really interesting and quite possible. The only trouble is I don't ride Bergie on a strong contact. He tends to balance himself quite well and the only time I take up more of a contact is when I canter so he doesn't fall out through the front end. It is really difficult with these big horses, because they are inclined to be a little lazy anyway, but the last thing I want to do is push him if the poor chap can't get his breath. Yet you are quite right inasmuch as when he is lunged, his head is right down nearly to the floor. Thank you so much for your help.
ElaineX
 
Agree with all the above re causes of the noise & impact on performance.
As far as the tieback op is concerned, my boy was one of the very few it didn't work for & as such he aspirates food into his windpipe & coughs.
If you look at all my posts you will see what his history is.
I don't mean to put you off but you should be aware of any possible problems (however rare) if you decide to go down the op route. The initial op cost me about £2000 with livery/ antibiotics etc. They stay in for about a week & then a further 5 weeks box rest at home.
My horse is sadly in the vets tomorrow to have his tie back reversed
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Hi, I'm in exactly the same position as you! I bought my 6 year old a year ago. He had a slight cough but no roar or sound. Vet passed him to event and reassured me he would be fine (which I'm now not happy about at all as he should have failed...) To cut a long story short, he has worsened recently and now, like yours can trot out hacking fine, but struggles in the school, making inspiratory sound. My vet says he is an unusal candidate as he is quite light - mainly TB with a little draught, and only 15.1hh. He does tend to overbend, so I wondered if that was comprimising his breathing, but then he also does this when tense out hacking, but his breathing is fine then. He is much worse working on the right rein than on the left which my vet said she has seen in another horse. I think he struggles to bend through his neck and breathe - be really interested if yours has trouble like this?
Re the op - read about Spider further down the forum - be very careful, things sound like they can end up worse than the situation we're in at the moment.
 
Hi - I did read about Spider and am so sorry you are having
such a worrying time with him. I do wish him (and you) all the best for tomorrow. I am sure you will let us all know how he gets on. Will be thinking about you. X
 
Bergie's breathing is the same on both reins when schooling. Like your horse however, when he is on a hack he can pull like a train, so you have to take a hold. He has his head tucked in all the way back home and he doesn't puff at all. It's really weird. I would have liked to think that country gals theory was right, that he is more tense when schooling, unless it is maybe a stress thing! Although he does seem to enjoy schooling, yet because of the breathing you don't seem to progress like you would wish.
 
Harrytom - Bergie may be holding himself in an outline. I know it sounds silly, but some horses "know" how they should be working and no matter how much rein you give them will hold themselves too tight out of choice!
Mine used to strive to do everything perfectly and would stand and shake if he couldn't do it. He was a total dressage diva but his body just couldn't keep up with his opinion of what was right.
Unfortunatly, it means that you have to ride him activly to try and lower his head a bit and get him to relax, which is much easier said than done!
However, in his day, he hunted and evented as well as dressage, and never had a problem with it. Bergie may just be another perfectionist and it's something you'll have to accept is "Bergie"!
 
Hi countrygal - I bet my husband of 38 years would be delighted If I got half as worried about his welfare. If he snores, he just gets an elbow in the ribs and told to shut up!
I think the operation sounds like it causes as many problems as it solves, (look at poor Spider). Whatever the outcome, Bergies here to stay. His good points far outway any noise he may make and let's face it, it was never going to be a case of Mr President, watch out!
Yes, on reflection, i'll keep both of them, the snoring husband and the roaring horse.
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Hi,
My horse was a grade 4 Roarer and he had the tie-back and hobday and it all went well. They didn't tie it back quite enough for him to go hunting but it was so bad he struggled round a course of Show Jumps before and now he show jumps with ease.

If anyone does think about having the tie back and hobday i would recommend investigating having the hob day done by laser - thats what mine had and its a lot easier and less stressful recovery than a open hob day.

Good luck
 
My horse also roars. He's an ex racer and has had a tie back and hobday. It's never been a problem up until now when he's just had a serious choke.

I find that he makes almost like a burping sound due to the hobday, but like I said - no problems.
 
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