Page 22 - September 2005 The Game

22 The Game, September 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
RESPIRATORY IRRITANTS -- WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?
Equine Health
by Karen Briggs
Dave Landry Photo
The ventilation in your barn can have a major impact on your horse's health, and nowhere is that more true than for Thoroughbreds in training.
Ordinarily, the horse's respiratory system has a host of natural defences, which work very well to protect him from disease and irritants. But in a sufficiently polluted environment, these defences may be overwhelmed. Heavy burdens of dust decrease the ability of the immune system to fight infectious agents, leaving the horse prone to respiratory diseases such as influenza or strangles. Nuclear medicine studies at the Equine Research Centre have shown that following a bout of influenza, equine lungs can take up to a month to fully recover. During this recovery period, horses are extremely sensitive to the inhalation of airborne pollutants.
Sensitivities to dusts, moulds, and other inhalants vary a great deal; there is little we can do to predict which horses, exposed to the same environment, will develop signs of allergies or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and which will not. Even less well understood, at this point, is what factors may be behind the development of the non-allergic small airway disease which often appears in young racehorses. But we can at least identify some of the common culprits.
According to work done in the Respiratory Health and Air Quality project at the former Equine Research Centre in Guelph, Ontario, hay is the single most important source of dust and mould spores in the stable. Susan Raymond explains that in one study, her team compared the relative dust levels of five different types of forages: dry hay, water-soaked hay, haylage, hay cubes, and a complete feed pellet. Dry hay, even that which looked to be of very high quality, consistently demonstrated dust levels dozens of times higher than hay cubes or pellets.
All of the other forage types generated significantly less dust; interestingly, hay which had been soaked did show a major reduction in particulates, though of course soaking a poor-quality, mouldy hay doesn't make it any less mouldy. Haylage (hay fermented and packaged in airtight plastic) is also low in dusts and moulds if properly preserved, but it must be carefully managed. Any haylage which smells of ammonia, contains dirt, or comes from a punctured or damaged bag should not be fed, and opened bags of haylage should be fed within a couple of days; otherwise the risk of botulism is unacceptably high.
Bedding is another major source of inhalant particles in the equine environment. The worst offender, according to the Equine Guelph studies, is straw. Even the cleanest wheat straw contains significantly more small, respirable fungal spores than beddings such as shavings or peat moss. Deep litter bedding systems, whether done with straw or shavings, are another major mould-pro- ducer; they allow moulded bedding and fecal material to accumulate, and have the added disadvantage of allowing the build-up of noxious gases such as ammonia, not to mention infectious bacteria and the larvae of internal parasites.
"One of the worst things you can do," adds respiratory researcher Andrew Clarke, former executive director of the ERC, "is to put your shavings pile, or the chute that brings the shavings down from the loft, right next to your horse's stall." Such a setup may mean your horse is inhaling irritant particles for hours every day.
One type of bedding which Equine Guelph demonstrated to be unusually low in dust was paper bedding made from shredded telephone books. It proved not only low in dust but was also easy to work with and very absorbent. The amount of airborne particles generated during mucking-out with this bedding, according to Raymond, was consistently much lower than with straw bedding in a direct comparison, both in poorly-ventilated and well-ventilated barns.
Another good option is bedding made from shredded hemp stalks, which is initially expensive but reportedly both absorbent and very low in dust.
Grain is yet another source of airborne pollutants in the barn, especially when stored in bulk. The poorer the quality of the grain you feed, the higher the dust levels. Needless to say, any grain which shows the slightest indication of being mouldy should not be fed; quite apart from the internal upset, the number of spores a horse would inhale at the first bite represents a serious health threat to his respiratory tract.
Does your barn have hay stored in a loft above the stalls? Old bank barns may have rotted floorboards, which allow chaff and dust from hay stored above to sift through; the risk is particularly high when old hay and bedding from many years past forms a layer on the loft floor, providing an ideal environment for fungal and mould growth, as well as a hiding place for rodents, sparrows, and other uninvited residents.
A field of dreams
By Jim Reynolds
On the side of a mountain in the Sunshine Valley west of Merritt, BC sits an 80-acre patch of paradise known as Can-A- Mex Farms. It is owned by Joel and Karen Mena - two of the nicest people in the breeding business.
Karen is from Murrayville about 30 miles west of Vancouver and Joel (pronounced the Spanish way as Ho-el) is from Mexico and theirs is a story of a dream fulfilled.
Karen started galloping horses at Exhibition Park (now Hastings) in the late 1970s and married Joel in 1988 (they have a son Marcos Francisco now twelve). She joined the staff of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society office where she worked as one of its most popular employees until 1992.
Joel started riding match races for his father in Mexico City when he was 12 years old and, following in the footsteps of his older brothers, began riding at Agua Caliente Racetrack in 1968. The profession took him to racetracks up and down the West Coast and eventually to Exhibition Park where for 13 years he was one of Vancouver’s most popular journeyman raceriders.
He hung up his tack for the last time in 1990, but for him and the game he loved it could never be a permanent separation. For Joel racing as the say in Mexico was ‘está en su sangre - in his blood.
In 1992, along with Karen’s brother and sister-in-law Doug and Kathy Murray, they bought the property which they would build into Can-A-Mex Farms. Now a breeding, training and lay-up facility equipped with ten-stall barn and large rolling paddocks where young horses can play and be horses as nature intended. The climate is dry with excellent water, clean mountain air and lots of sunshine. The Mena’s own three broodmares and specialize in grooming yearlings for sales, board horses and run a few head of cattle—in western parlance, a working ranch.
For the Menas and the Murrays their lives revolve around the work and effort they’ve put into their farm and the purchase and development of the land into a successful operation is a satisfying reward.
"When we were looking for a piece of property things had to be right. We wanted trees, mountains and clean air and water," says Karen who practices holistic methods to develop a healthy immune system and believes in communication and lots of gentle handling of her charges. "We’re here to help horses," she says.
Karen believes that the future looks bright for the BC thoroughbred industry and would like to build on their current breeding operation.
"It was always one of my dreams to own a thoroughbred farm," she says. "It’s a wonderful thing to watch a foal stand and nurse and to go on to be strong and healthy. And our goal is to raise a great stakes horse"
They say hope is eternal. For the Menas, as with all horse breeders, it is just another important element that they bring to the game.
Can-A-Mex Farms Ltd. has three yearlings consigned to the CTHS Yearling and mixed sale September 12.
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