Equine asthma and other respiratory conditions are significantly influenced by stable air quality, making bedding, ventilation, and forage choices central to respiratory welfare management.
Equine asthma causes chronic welfare suffering including coughing, exercise intolerance, increased breathing effort, and in severe cases laboured breathing at rest and weight loss. Horses with poorly controlled EAS experience daily discomfort that limits their ability to perform, move, and breathe normally. Environmental management — maximising turnout, improving stable ventilation, switching to dust-extracted bedding, and soaking or steaming hay — is the most effective intervention and can resolve mild EAS without medication. Medication (bronchodilators and corticosteroids) provides faster relief for acute cases. Management is often complex because the changes required conflict with traditional stable routines, requiring owner education and commitment.