Cough.

[NBChoice]

I tried looking for this in the search, but I couldn't find anything.
My mare is 17 this year and completely healthy. You can tell shes starting to get a bit older, but if anyone that didn't know her saw her, they wouldn't know she was 17. I'm just a little bit concerned about something she has been doing lately. Whenever I start riding her in the trot she coughs. She is fine when I'm not riding her or when I'm riding her in the walk. But as soon as I start trotting or cantering her, she coughs once or twice and then she doesn't do it again for the rest of the ride. She's been ridden in the same arena for about 7 years, so I doubt it could be that there is something in the air causing her to cough. All I could find when I looked it up was that there could be something bothering her like dust or another allergen and a few other illnesses. Has anybody experienced this? And do you think it is something to be concerned about?

[Samigator]

coughing can also be caused by hay. Either dusty or moldy. . . and I've also heard of horses who ate from round bales their whole lives developing emphysema because they don't pull their heads out to breathe, they breathe with their noses inside of the bale. Has she been on round bales? Some friends of mine now actually unroll their round bales on the ground because they have lost horses to this problem.

[NBChoice]

No shes never eaten from a round bale that I know of. Not since I've owned her anyway.

[Samigator]

well I would still check her hay, sometimes barns get a moldy shipment that sat out in the rain or something. It doesn't take much to set them off. How long has she been doing this?

[NBChoice]

Yeah I think I will check her hay. Shes been doing it for probably about a month to a month and a half.

[kmmed1]

I would be tempted to do an allergy test on her, since this has developed recently, and it's the time of year when new allergies will show up.
If your hay seems fine, it wouldn't hurt to soak it before she eats, so all the dust can be washed away. We put ours in a clean muck basket, fill with water, soak for 15 minutes at least, dump out the water and give the hay on the ground. you'd be surprised how much dust can wash out of what seems to be really good hay.

[peri]

A friend of mine has a mid-twenties paint horse that coughs in trot to...not canter or walk just trot. She thinks it might be because he is getting older, his deffences are weekening so when he breathes in all that dirt he stirs up in the arena while trotting may be causing him to cough. Probably because his lungs can't filter it out? I'm not sure because she hasn't had a vet check him but that's her guess.

[oneasbfan]

My gelding (he is also 17) does this as well. He will cough a few times at the start of being worked and then he is fine. He has a history of mild heaves but is easily managed by being turned out everyday. I used to water down his hay but I don't even do that anymore. I guess I don't worry about it much it has never progressed he just coughs once or twice, and only when he works.

When I go running it is not uncommon for me to cough once or twice.

Julie