Everyone who owns or works with horses knows that each one teaches us something new. When buying a new horse, we often try to avoid past challenges, hoping for a fresh and rewarding experience. Toby, who joined our team in May 2021, has been an incredible teacher, offering lessons in patience, adaptability, and equine management.
Building a Partnership
Since Toby’s arrival, we have had an incredible journey together, filled with fun rides, dressage training, cross-country, and showjumping. In recent years I have found that my focus has shifted from competition to training. I have particularly enjoyed building a connection, trust, and understanding of Toby in the few years that he has been with me.
Managing Sweet Itch
One of the first challenges we faced with Toby was sweet itch, something I hadn’t owned a horse with before. The key with sweet itch is prevention, staying ahead of the irritation before it starts. The first year was tough, as we weren’t aware of his condition, and he developed sores over his entire body. Working closely with my vet, we developed a management plan that included early rugging and treatment.
Horses that have one allergy often have another and it wasn't long before we realised Toby didn't just have sweet itch but allergies to other things too which, as well as causing itchiness, affected his breathing.
Addressing Allergies and Coughing
We manage Toby’s sweet itch much better than in that first year with early rugging and topical applications. However, in late May, I always noticed a change in his character, he becomes withdrawn. Around the same time, he starts coughing, which of course impacts his exercise tolerance. My vet and I were determined to find the root cause.
Normal resting respiration rate is 9-12 breaths per minute. Toby's is much faster than that, indicating respiratory distress and during the allergy season you can hear the wheeze in his breath.
After allergy testing, we discovered that Toby is allergic to mites, wasps, cockroaches, forage mites, dust mites, and ryegrass, among other things. This made management tricky, as removing these allergens completely was nearly impossible.
With approximately 14% of horses suffering from allergies that affect their respiratory health, i thought it was high time I shared what we have been doing to help Toby. Please appreciate however that what works or didn't work for Toby won't necessarily be the same for a different horse. They are all individuals with different needs.
Meriel's on-demand presentation Galloping Forward with Healthy Lungs is full of management tips as well as explaining the science behind many of these problems and solutions. Well worth a watch if you are managing an SEA or respiratory compromised horse.
Mission No. 1: Remove All Dust and Exposure to Allergens!
To help him as much as possible we made adjustments to his management, including:
Rugging - We tried various fly rugs, but it wasn’t until we found the Boett Sweet Itch Rug that we saw real progress. This is the biggest single thing that made the greatest difference. He now actually has 2 rugs and we switch them daily. We also use fly boots which we change daily to prevent the flys and midges biting his legs.
Turnout – Toby spends as much time outdoors as possible. This has so many benefits for his musculoskeletal system as well as his respiratory health.
Hay Management – After much research, we invested in a HayGain Hay Steamer, which has been scientifically proven to reduce dust and allergens more effectively than soaking. This definitely made a difference, although it's important to note that you need to do this for all the horses in the yard / shared space. It's pretty pointless steaming hay for a respiratory compromised horse if their neighbour has dusty hay wafting into the stable.
Feeding presentation
I have talked about the advantages and disadvantages of different feeding positions and the biomechanical effects on the musculoskeletal system in previous articles and webinars. For Toby's respiratory health we have found hay feeders that stop him burying his nose into the hay to be really useful. I have a haygain forager which has the benefit of keeping hay in a natural position, containing any dust and encouraging it to drop to the bottom.
Hay Store - We have actually moved the hay store away from the stable yard completely with the idea that he will not be exposed to any dust from the un-steamed hay store. Admittedly we are so lucky to be able to do this.
Ventilation - Looking at ways to improve the ventilation in his stable had us adding windows in all the stables.
Bedding - For a long time we were using dust free wood shavings believing these to be the best. Recently however after hearing of a study comparing the dust levels with different bedding types we decided to switch to wood pellets. These have been revolutionary. As well as the fun of watching them expand when you add the water initially, they are cheaper than shavings, SO much easier to muck out, saving me time and there's less waste with them too. And the best benefit...Toby loves them, he's been lying down so much more. Now whether that's because he finds them more comfortable to lie on or because he can breathe more easily I'm not sure, but either way he's so much happier!
Stable Cleaning and Hoovering! – If it means Toby will be better I am happy to go and hoover his stable every week, ensuring his stable is kept as clean as possible with regular cleaning. Interesting how when we switched to the wood pellets from the "premium dust free shavings" how much less dust there is to hoover on a monthly basis!
Topical Applications - We use neem oil, fly sprays and benzyl benzoate based anti-itch lotions which seem to help keep the flies and midges away and to reduce the itchiness.
Salt Therapy - I can hear some of you asking about salt therapy. We did try it with Toby but sadly it didn't seem to offer any significant or long-term relief.
Mission No. 2: Strengthen Toby's skin
Grooming and Bathing - Toby loves his daily currycomb and in the allergy season he has weekly baths with Head and Shoulders which he seems to appreciate! As well as helping to keep him clean and remove any dust and allergens, the grooming helps to remove dead skin cells and stimulate skin cells which can only be a good thing,
Nutrition Support –Working with independent equine nutritionist Clare MacLeod we created a balanced diet for Toby. We’ve also tried a number of targeted supplements but with limited success. However omega 3 has worked wonders. This comes in either cod liver oil or linseed oil / micronised linseed. As I'm sure is the case with many horses, Toby stopped eating his feed if there was too much cod liver oil in it, so even though it's a great source of omega 3, we switched to linseed oil and his coat looks great.
Getting There...
Next Steps...
Other things we are planning to try to make things even better this year... the ringworm prevention injection has had mixed results in controlling sweet itch so we are trying that to see if it helps and we are just starting regular nebulising with salt water before his respiratory system becomes compromised. It would be great if we don't have to resort to steroids to keep him comfortable.
As we are trying so many things to try and make a difference with Toby, the challenge will be working out exactly what we have done that has made the difference. Unfortunately as his allergies and asthma are severe and will probably deteriorate as he gets older, I don't think there is just one thing we can do that will 'cure' him. Management of horses like this require a multifaceted approach.
Wouldn't it be wonderful, though, if we could cure Toby of sweet itch and asthma instead of just manage and treat the symptoms.... We're giving it a go...
Last summer with us still struggling to get on top of the coughing, we embarked on a course of allergy injections. This is a long-term solution involving controlled exposure to allergens to build immunity. We won’t know if this course of action has been successful until this spring and summer, so keep your fingers crossed for us!
If you have found this article useful please let me know! And if you are on a similar journey and want to share your experiences please share in the comments below.
Best wishes
Gillian xx
Great reading but I was thinking it was managing horse allergies for humans. Are there any articles that can inform me about treating allergies to horses or some of the root causes?
Thanks for sharing your experience. Really helpful - both in terms of it being worth experimenting with options, and also that many horses have conditions that require significant management change, despite our best efforts.
Very helpful , thank you Gillian, a good practical 'living' expample of some of the steps recommended in the webinar by Prof Muriel. I have a new horse on loan who is an allergy horse. my first experience of this.