{"id":10445,"date":"2018-09-14T12:33:29","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T17:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/be55915bbd.nxcli.net\/?p=10445"},"modified":"2021-07-25T12:35:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T17:35:59","slug":"stress-friend-or-foe-in-the-horse-and-the-impact-on-health-and-soundness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nouvelleresearch.com\/index.php\/articles\/10445-stress-friend-or-foe-in-the-horse-and-the-impact-on-health-and-soundness","title":{"rendered":"Stress: Friend or Foe in the Horse and the Impact on Health and Soundness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stress.\u00a0 It’s a part of life and ever more present in our human lives in the past couple of decades.\u00a0 Is it a part of our equine companion’s lives?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 On more levels than you care to know or realize.\u00a0 The stress response in the horse is not much different than in you and I, and can\u00a0 either be beneficial or damaging to health, soundness, and recovery.\u00a0 Curbing that process, on what ever level that you can, dramatically impacts those three aspects of health, soundness, and recovery.\u00a0 The question is whether if you recognize that the process exists, that it is truly playing a role, and then decide to do something about it.<\/p>\n

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The Horse and Stress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Weather, feed changes, injuries, body condition, foot health, training, transportation, herd dynamics, and environmental factors all can create a stress response in your horse.\u00a0 It’s not a wonder that you see more horses contract influenza, herpes, or other infectious diseases when housed tightly at a racetrack, competition barn, or during transportation.\u00a0 It also should come as no surprise that stress during these types of conditions also contributes immensely to the development of gastric ulcers.\u00a0 Stress can make them a little crazy, just like you and I, but it can dramatically impact their health and even healing.<\/p>\n

You might find yourself battling the recovery of an injury in your equine companion, doing everything right medicinally, but recovery seems to come and go often over months or even years.\u00a0 This may be a tendon injury that you are attempting to rehabilitate with stall rest, or maybe a battle with ongoing laminitis in an overweight horse kept on a dry lot with restricted feed.<\/p>\n

There are many factors connected with overall health, mental function, injury, and full recovery, with stress being right at the top of that list!<\/p>\n

The Stress Response; Friend or Foe<\/span><\/h3>\n

The natural stress response is very closely linked to the concept or process of inflammation.\u00a0 Just as in the case of inflammation, we have two types; acute and chronic.\u00a0 And just like with inflammation, the acute process is a good thing and needed for survival.\u00a0 The chronic stress process is damaging to the body on many levels, and can kill the healthiest of horses or people.\u00a0 During a stress response, there is a release of many hormones, chemicals, and cellular signaling events that create physiological changes in the body.\u00a0 Two hormones that are released include cortisol and epinephrine.\u00a0 These are beneficial in the short term, but not in the long term.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In order to have a stress response in the body, you must have a stressor.\u00a0 That stressor is an event that takes place to the horse’s body which creates a challenge.\u00a0 In short term challenges, such as when a horse just begins to enter training or is introduced to a new herd, this stressor challenges the body to overcome, become stronger, and adapt.\u00a0 If the event is successful, that horse will adapt.\u00a0 Muscles become stronger.\u00a0 The circulation is enhanced.\u00a0 Mental acuity is increased and maybe they became stronger overall, more experienced, even in the case of a new herd.\u00a0 This acute stress response even applies to a horse going through rehabilitation for an injury or other condition.\u00a0 If a tendon has been damaged, they must relearn to use that structure, go through some pain, to which they will hopefully adapt.\u00a0 If you choose to go barefoot in a horse that has been shod for years, there will likewise be a period of adaptation, stress, which they will hopefully adapt to over time.\u00a0 As they adapt, if all pieces of the puzzle are in place, the body structures will become stronger, and able to withstand greater forces as an end result.<\/p>\n

In the chronic stages of stress, the horse’s body can be damaged.\u00a0 The stress response is meant to be a short term situation, but when the stressor continues, day after day, month after month, severe problems can develop.\u00a0 This occurs in the horse that is stall bound at the race track or training facility for 22 hours per day.\u00a0 This happens in a laminitic or metabolic horse kept on a dry lot with reduced quality feed intake, away from their companions with little exercise.\u00a0 This happens to some horses during constant training, competition, and transportation.\u00a0 This also happens to the horse that has poorly cared for feet that are out of balance, and constantly inflicting pain with each step or stride.\u00a0 This may also happen to a horse that is on constant medications for various conditions, due to their presence often creating a challenge for the horse physiologically, and also their influence on other organ systems.<\/p>\n

The hormones released during a stress response are not much different whether if the situation is acute or chronic.\u00a0 In the short term, those hormones have a purpose and create change in the body.\u00a0 They elevate the heart rate, blood pressure, and circulation.\u00a0 They alter the immune function, often lowering it.\u00a0 They make the mind more alert, overly responsive at times.\u00a0 They also alter gastrointestinal function and digestion.\u00a0 All of these events are needed in the short term, to escape from a lion or other threat, or to aid in tissue enhancement, but when the process continues day in and day out, problems develop<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It’s all stress.\u00a0 The question is what do you do about it?<\/span><\/h3>\n

You can’t avoid stress in your horse’s life, but you can alter some of the stressors and how the body responds.\u00a0 Looking at all of the ways that stress enters a horse’s life, it is not a wonder that we have the large number of health conditions that we do.\u00a0 Many owners will refuse to acknowledge that stress is a factor, to which I reply, just sit back and watch your horse<\/strong>.\u00a0 It’s self evident<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

How do we know this?\u00a0 Easy.\u00a0 Understand the process, know that it is exists, and see how it plays a role in their health, soundness and recovery.<\/p>\n

Many owners have horses that develop loose stools during competition, training, or competition which is brushed off to just being ‘them’.\u00a0 True on some level, but the loose stools are a result of stress and the impact on the motility of the digestive tract.\u00a0 Then you have the large numbers of horses that are stall bound, competing, or recovering from an injury that are diagnosed with stomach ulcers, then placed on medications to alleviate the clinical signs.\u00a0 Then you have a metabolic horse with laminitis that continues to demonstrate coffin bone rotation, laminar separation, and overall poor body condition and mentation. All stress related!<\/p>\n

That stress response can directly impair tissue regeneration and overall health.\u00a0 Cortisol, being one main player, in the long term is a catabolic steroid, which means it is damaging to normal tissue.\u00a0 This is not just muscle, tendons, and hoof tissue, but also the digestive tract and the stomach, not to mention the mind.\u00a0 Circulation patterns are also disrupted during a stress response, pushing blood to the more vital organs that are needed to escape a threatening situation.\u00a0 The immune response is often impaired as well, which opens the door for infections and poor healing. Gastrointestinal health is compromised, ulcers develop, digestion is impaired, and the microbiome is disturbed.\u00a0 This means that the food you feed your horse may not be utilized properly, no matter how much added vitamins or minerals that you add.\u00a0 All of these then impairs tissue healing from tendons, to muscles, to the hoof.<\/p>\n

Now that you can hopefully see the problem, or one of many problems, let’s look at solutions for better management.<\/p>\n

Managing Stress and Altering Pathways in the Horse<\/span><\/h3>\n

Stress is a constant, but you do have options when it comes to dealing with the effects.\u00a0 One major thing you can do is to reduce the stressors.<\/p>\n