Equine Breathing
An Introduction to Equine Breathing
Equine Breathing is a new holistic self help training method that enables owners and handlers to help their horses to
- recover from chronic ailments and behavioural problem
- recover from injuries and
- increase fitness and safety
It involves no veterinary procedures or drugs, is easy to do and horses love it.
Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?
But there are physiological reasons as to why Equine Breathing would work.
The key is that physiological and or psychological stress in horses can lead to disruption of the normal breathing pattern.
In humans chronic over-breathing (a response to stress) results in biochemical imbalances in the body. These imbalances disrupt the metabolism and can lead to poor functioning of organs and tissues; in other words can result in symptoms.
A sign of over breathing
- flared nostrils at rest
Professor Buteyko’s research led him to believe that ME (and a host of other illnesses) were the body’s response to chronic over-breathing. He developed breathing exercises to retrain the breathing back to a lower, more normal level allowing the body to recover normal functioning without symptoms.
Hay fever and headshaking
Feeling good at age 28
In 2001 Clare realised that he was clearly over-breathing. Her background training as a biologist and her recent Buteyko practitioner training made her wonder if regaining normal breathing would help with the hay fever.
Obviously she could not explain to Cuilrane that he should take smaller breaths so she physically reduced the in breath by placing her hand over one nostril and developed the 1N technique.
Within a week Cuilrane had recovered so much he no longer needed his homeopathic remedy and over the next 2 years he recovered completely.
Not only did the hay fever disappear but various other chronic ailments and behavioural problems disappeared and he flourished in magnificent condition. Following the initial success with Cuilrane Clare visited livery yards and checked horses’ breathing and was surprised to find that most of the horses over-breathed.
It seems that the life of most horses in our society involves enough over-breathing triggers for the breathing pattern to be disrupted. She then started running Equine Breathing trials on horses with a range of conditions from breathing difficulties to behavioural and metabolic problems and found that all gained benefit.
14 year old Amy does 1N with her Shetland
"What I like about Equine Breathing" says Clare "is that it is simply a retraining program.
"There are no veterinary procedures so owners are able to use the technique to support their horse in its recovery.
"Equine Breathing is supportive of any holistic veterinary and general care.
"Just about any owner can do the easiest technique which is called 1N."
Guidelines for starting to use 1N are available free here on the Equine Breathing topic in the forum and on the www.equinebreathing.com website.
Horses become very relaxed
when doing Equine Breathing.
Because Equine Breathers are more relaxed and (I believe) getting more oxygen and nutrients to the brain, their learning ability is improved.
Equine Breathing can be invaluable as part of a training program to help learn new skills and to perform better in competitions.
Horse Breathers (those doing Equine Breathing) often report back to me how much they enjoy the quiet time with their horse and giving something back to their dearly loved companions.”
More powerful Equine Breathing methods are available but Clare recommends that anyone interested in Equine Breathing should try the 1N technique (see above) daily for a week so that they can determine for themselves whether they think Equine Breathing helps their horse and which technique would be best for their situation.
Demonstrating 1N on a new recruit
at the Natural Horse Gathering
For more information visit
or email
clare@equinebreathingtechnique.co.uk
This article is for educational purposes only. Equine Breathing is not a substitute for veterinary care. If you have any concerns about your horse’s health you should consult your vet. Owners report that their vet has been happy for them to try the Equine Breathing training and has been pleased with the results.
If you would like to discuss the above or share your experiences with others, please go to the Forum
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