Respiratory conditions significantly affect horse welfare, particularly in stabled animals. Understanding risk factors and prevention is essential for equine health.
Equine respiratory disease causes substantial welfare impacts ranging from mild performance limitations to severe respiratory distress affecting every breath. For horses with equine asthma, unmanaged stable environments mean chronic airway inflammation, hyperresponsiveness, and laboured breathing that is painful and frightening. Many cases are preventable or significantly reducible through environmental management — increasing turnout time, improving stable ventilation, eliminating dusty hay, and using appropriate bedding. The welfare cost of maintaining horses in conventional stabbed environments using dry hay and straw bedding, which is still very common practice, is substantial. Vaccination programs for infectious respiratory diseases reduce outbreak risk but require consistent herd compliance.