Every Event Horse Is a Respiratory Athlete

Why Easier Breathing Matters at Every Level of Eventing

Eventers pay attention to the details.

Conditioning. Training. Nutrition. Soundness. Recovery. Each contributes to preparing a horse for the demands of competition.

Respiratory management should be viewed the same way.

Every stride, every jump and every effort requires energy. Producing that energy requires oxygen. And every breath that delivers that oxygen begins at the nose.

That is true whether your horse is competing Beginner Novice or Advanced.

The Respiratory Athlete

Eventing presents a unique physiological challenge because the horse must perform three very different athletic tasks.

Dressage requires collection, balance and controlled muscular effort. Cross-country combines speed, endurance, jumping and terrain. Show jumping requires power and precision, often after the demands of cross-country.

While current FEI rules do not permit FLAIR Strip use during dressage competition, dressage does add to the respiratory load horses experience during a three day event competition and recovery.

Underlying all three is the respiratory system.

Horses are obligate nasal breathers—they cannot simply open their mouths to supplement airflow when exercise becomes strenuous. Every breath must travel through the nostrils and nasal passages on its way to the lungs.

As exercise intensity increases, so does the amount of air the horse needs to move.

And moving air takes work.

The respiratory muscles require energy and oxygen just like every other working muscle. As airflow demand increases, so does the work required to breathe.

We can think of this as respiratory load.

Anything that unnecessarily increases resistance within the airway adds to that load.

Why the Nose Matters

The nasal passages are particularly important because they represent a major source of resistance in the equine airway.

During strenuous exercise, the horse generates increasingly negative pressures inside the airway as it draws air toward the lungs. Those pressures pull unsupported soft tissues over the nasal passages inward, narrowing the airway.

That narrowing matters.

As the airway becomes narrower, resistance increases. As resistance increases, the horse must work harder to move the air required for exercise.

This is where FLAIR® Equine Nasal Strips come in.

FLAIR Strips support the soft tissues over the nasal passages, to reduce the collapse of nasal passages during exercise.

By making it easier to move air through the nasal passages, FLAIR Strips reduce the work of breathing.

That means less respiratory load on the horse during exercise.

“But I Don't Compete at the Upper Levels.”

This may be one of the biggest misconceptions about respiratory management in eventing.

Because FLAIR Strips are highly visible on elite event horses, it is easy to assume that they become important only when horses reach the upper levels.

Respiratory demand doesn't suddenly begin when a horse moves up the levels.

A Beginner Novice horse and a 5* horse obviously aren't performing the same cross-country test.

But competition level alone doesn't tell us how demanding a particular effort is for an individual horse.

Fitness matters. Conditioning matters. Athletic ability matters. Terrain, footing and weather matter. And the individual horse matters.

As exercise physiologist Dr. David Marlin explained in an earlier discussion of FLAIR use in lower-level event horses, a less-fit or less-athletic horse may have to work harder at a given exercise intensity and may take longer to recover than a fitter, more athletic horse.

That leads to a much better way of thinking about respiratory support:

It's not about the level. It's about the effort.

Your horse doesn't know what level is printed on the entry form. His respiratory system responds to the physiological demands being placed upon it.

Lower Level Doesn't Mean Lower Importance

Think about how we manage the rest of the lower-level event horse.

We don't wait until Preliminary to care about conditioning.

We don't wait until Intermediate to think about nutrition.

We don't wait until Advanced to care about soundness, recovery or protecting our horse's legs.

Why would we wait to think about breathing?

In fact, good respiratory management may make particular sense for the developing event horse.

A horse gaining fitness, a horse relatively new to eventing, an older horse, or simply a horse for whom the day's effort is challenging still has to meet the respiratory demands of that effort.

You prepare the whole horse for the level you compete. Don't leave the respiratory system out.

More Than Airflow

The value of reducing respiratory load isn't limited to simply getting air through the nose.

There are several reasons respiratory management is particularly relevant to event horses.

Work of breathing. Every bit of unnecessary airway resistance requires additional muscular effort to overcome. FLAIR Strips reduce nasal airway resistance, making breathing easier.

Exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH). EIPH—bleeding within the lungs associated with strenuous exercise—is not exclusively an issue for racehorses or elite competitors. FLAIR Strips have been shown in clinical studies to reduce the severity of EIPH.

Fatigue. Breathing is part of the horse's total physiological workload. Reducing unnecessary respiratory work helps conserve energy rather than spending it overcoming avoidable airway resistance.

Recovery. The respiratory demand doesn't end at the finish box. After strenuous exercise, the horse continues breathing heavily while recovering from the effort. Making breathing easier is therefore relevant not only while the horse is working, but also as the horse begins to recover.

A Small Detail That Makes Physiological Sense

There is no single piece of equipment, supplement or training technique that creates a successful event horse.

Success comes from managing many details well.

Respiratory management is one of those details.

FLAIR Strips are non-invasive, drug-free and simple to use. They address a known source of airway resistance at the point where every breath begins.

And perhaps most importantly, their usefulness isn't determined by the height of the fences your horse jumps.

It is determined by something much more fundamental:

Your horse breathes through the same respiratory system at every level.

So whether you're heading out of the start box at Beginner Novice, Training, Preliminary or Advanced, the principle remains the same:

Make breathing easier. Reduce respiratory load. Help your horse manage the effort.

Every event horse is a Respiratory Athlete.

It's not about the level. It's about the effort.