Could this be a thing? Back trouble and clearing airways (blowing)

[RhythmNCruise]

This is purely out of curiosity. I’ve searched the internet several times to see if it’s “a thing” that anyone else has experienced. I’m not sure it’s even a thing I’VE experienced, but it’s something I’ve wondered about for a while.

My horse has not been scoped or confirmed, but he definitely has some respiratory issues that are most obvious when it’s hot/humid (and it gets very hot/humid here). He’s kind of loud, and I feel like he’s a “roarer”. He can still work (we only do low-level dressage), and he’s been like this for several years. It’s not getting worse, in fact…

Completely unrelated, he has had some back issues. Very tight/stiff, eventually progressing to full on spasms that really gave him a rough time a year ago. I broke this horse myself and have owned him practically his entire life (he’s 13 now), and he’s never been one to work over his back and come through from behind very easily. Most of that is probably my fault for starting him too young (2yo) and riding him front to back instead of back to front.

Early on, he had no breathing issues…his breathing was quiet. He was always “lazy” and not very forward though. At the time, I didn’t mind. Better to break a baby that wants to go slow than take off, IMO. But as I expected more of him, getting the forward was harder. He was never grumpy about it…ears up…totally unconcerned as I pushed and pushed for more.

Then the breathing stuff started. At first it was just sort of raspy and louder. I never worried too much as I knew we weren’t going to do anything too strenuous and he was perfectly healthy otherwise.

A few years passed when the horse was basically a pasture pet while I let riding take a backseat to the rest of my life. Then, two years ago, I started riding him again (at age 11). That’s when both his back issues and his breathing issues really became noticeable. He was still willing to work and try, but his respiratory thing seemed to actually be bothering him. Like he couldn’t get his breath. Or more to the point, like he couldn’t clear his airway. I began realizing that he sounded like a horse that was on the verge of clearing his nose (blowing his nose, you know…the horse thing that horses do, lol). It was like a sitfled grunt, grunt, grunt noise he was making along with a little big of a raspy sound and I just had the feeling that he needed to blow his nose out. He NEVER did. Ever. I began to realize that I hardly ever heard him blow his nose…even when just around him in the barn or whatever, and certainly never when being ridden.

To make a long story slightly less long, a lot of work has been done to get his back feeling better, and one of the things I’ve noticed is that he is starting to blow his nose when ridden now. Usually he’ll only do it when I give him a walk break, and usualy he does it quite a bit. I actually praise him for it because I’m so happy to have him doing it.

I bought the equicore/equiband system recently and today was his third day (all in a row) of working in them. They seem to be doing a good job of helping him to work from back to front, and today he actually blew his nose while cantering! I was so proud, lol!

All of this to say…could it be that his tightness and soreness in his back was preventing him from blowing his nose…especially when ridden? And now that he’s gettig a little stronger and more relaxed over his topline he’s more comfortable blowing his nose?

Is that silly? It just seems like a possibility to me.

He’s still a loud breather in the heat/humidity, but he no longer seems bothered by it, especially now that he knows he can blow his nose during his workout. I’m trying to remember if he blew his nose when I rode him prior to the breathing stuff starting, but I just can’t remember.

Anyway, I don’t know if anyone has had anything remotely like this before, and just thought I’d share and see. Sorry for the novel.

[No1]

Some horses displace when they’re stressed. It’s possible he was displacing as a response to pain and, now that he is more comfortable, he isn’t.

[GraceLikeRain]

@RhythmNCruise

All of this to say…could it be that his tightness and soreness in his back was preventing him from blowing his nose…especially when ridden? And now that he’s gettig a little stronger and more relaxed over his topline he’s more comfortable blowing his nose?

Seems pretty likely. I’ve ridden horses that were mentally blocked and once they got to a better emotional place they did a lot more nose clearing, chewing, face rubs when standing on a loose rein, etc. It makes sense that a physical discomfort could prevent full releases.

[RhythmNCruise]

@No1 and @GraceLikeRain thank you for your replies. That’s really interesting, and does explain a lot. One thing I didn’t mention in my OP was that I just moved this horse to a new barn a month ago. We had been at the prior barn for almost 2 years, and he had spent the majority of those two years with at least some level of anxiety (from minor all the way to bat-crackers). I think the back pain was part of it, but he really just never could fully relax at that barn for long before something had him anxious again. Prior to that barn, he’d been at my farm for ten of his eleven years of life. So the move was major for him and really took a mental and physical toll.

He loves his new barn. He acts like he’s “home” now, and that is probably helping more than anything.

Stuff like this is so interesting to me.

[Hippolyta]

May or may not give insight, but in people scoliosis and posture issues affect respiration. If he can’t fully expand, it may be difficult to get a adequate volume in/out. Blowing his nose requires more pressure and flow. I don’t think your hypothesis is unreasonable.

[SuzieQNutter]

I think the first thing you need to do is to not think of him as being lazy. You admitted you were riding him back to front, so you trained him to not want to go.

By blowing his nose I presume you mean snorting. The snort you are praising in dressage only comes when the horse is relaxed. He would not have been relaxed ridden front to back and was not relaxed at the last barn.

He is now happy in his barn and you are riding him back to front so you now have the relaxing snort.

His training is next. Start with leading. When you give one click of the tongue he must walk first and walk out. Once you have this leading down pat, start under saddle. When you ask for trot he must trot immediately or (you choose whip or kick) the same consequence every time. The moment he does praise. You should find this is better by the second day.

As for forward, that comes when your horse has the confidence to go forward. That will happen when he has total confidence in you to ride back to front and won’t ride front to back again. He has to believe you.