I have two OTTBs out in pasture, my coming 5 year old has a deep whinny and can be very vocal (he’s fine), my coming 8 year old was very vocal until I went down to the field today and noticed that he sounded almost hoarse. He’s not shivering/shaking/limping, he’s eating, etc. What would cause that? He has a strong whinny usually and I wanted to see if anyone has had the same thing happen or if I should call the vet about it when he seems to be fine otherwise.
Virus. Does he have a temp? One of my mares went hoarse for awhile and then her whinny came back but it did take quite awhile. She never had any symptoms of a cold or fever but in retrospect I think it was likely a virus.
I’ll have to check k in the morning. That might be it, because he seems perfectly fine otherwise.
The farm I had her at then also changed the hay recently so I wondered whether that scratched her throat or had dust or something that caused her to lose her voice for awhile
It sounds like you are around a lot (maybe they live on your property) but is it possible he was screaming his head off about something before you got there and made himself hoarse?
Just because the only time I have ever heard a horse go hoarse (haha) was weanlings during weaning time. They call for mom a lot and some of them go hoarse and make these funny noises instead. A little heartbreaking, but they are with their friends and they settle down and their voices come back in a few days.
I don’t want to alarm you but depending on where you live you may want to have him scoped to see if he has any upper airway issues. My gelding also has issues with whinnying after his problems with nasopharygeal cicatrix syndrome (I live in GA, this issue is usually found in TX, OK and panhandle FL). He had inflammation and irritation from the issue. Thankfully treated with stem cell and is turning around.
They do live on my property and I haven’t heard anything really, unless it was in the middle of the night. I know coyotes have been roaming recently, so him making lots of noise could be a possibility, but usually my dogs will start barking when they hear coyotes and I’ll stick my head out the window to make sure I don’t hear the horses being messed with. 
Last time I rolled a hay bale in, it seemed a little more dry than the one before, so maybe that’s why. I’m going down tomorrow, so we’ll see if he’s improved.
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I live in Ohio. If he doesn’t get better I’ll be calling the vet just to be on the safe side.
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