Today’s horses are experiencing more stress than ever!
Whether they are show horses, or endurance horses and even horses used for camping, all are subject to added stressors.
With the show season in full swing it’s a good time to stop and take a look at how stressors may affect competitive horses.
Horses are very emotional creatures who are adversely affected by stress.
Understanding this is imperative to having a healthy and happy competitive equine. How individual horses respond to potentially stressful situations differs, but many health ailments are originated from stress of one kind or another.
Stress can be defined as a general term which describes the combination of psychological and biological responses of an animal during real or perceived threatening circumstances. While the physiological response to stress is a highly complex subject, and certainly is not completely understood, scientists agree that there are two types of stressors.
Physical stressors are things such as injury, over-exertion or a change in the environment. Psychological stressors typically include situations that make the animal anxious or fearful. Uncertainty and fear of the unknown can be categorized as two of the major psychological stressors. Competing horses, and even horses who travel for seemingly leisurely activities such as camping, are exposed to both physical and psychological stressors.
The primary concerns with stress are the effects on the endocrine system.
Continue reading Today’s Horses ~ Stress and the Endocrine System
