What is the history? For over 300 years horse riders have seen blood at the nostrils during or soon after performance work in a percentage of athletically trained horses. The condition has been named Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage or EIPH and affected horses are commonly known as "bleeders". With the advent of the modern endoscope, a flexible fibre-optic instrument, it has become appreciated that bleeding can be seen in the windpipe from one hour to several days after the exertion. Recent research has used radio-active blood cells to track these blood leakages from the lungs. The important conclusions from these investigations are (a) many more horses are bleeding internally than just the ones seen with blood at the nostrils, (b) in racing, most horses bleed at least once or many times in their career, (c) the blood is coming from the lungs during fast work. It is known that more than half of all racehorses bleed during racing, and some researchers have stated up to one hundred per cent. Bleeding is a common condition of racing horses and always has been.
What types of horses bleed? Most types of horses are susceptible to bleeding, Thoroughbred, Standardbred, Quarter horse, Thoroughbred cross and Arab horses. In addition to all kinds of racing, eventing, dressage, cross-country, show-jumping and driving, bleeding has also been found in horses kept for lighter recreational use. Where a horse is in work only seasonally or at irregular intervals bleeding can develop during periods of rest. When the horse is brought back into training, there is often unnoticed bleeding with distress and refusal for apparently unknown reasons. Bleeding is even known in heavy dray horses when they are asked for extra effort.
What causes bleeding? The cause of the bleeding is now known with certainty to be extra high blood pressure when the horse is under exertion. Normal blood pressure is the low resting to high running scale of blood pressure found in a free running wild horse, or a domesticated endurance horse, rising with exertion but not so high as to cause distress or bleeding. A healthy horse at rest has a pulse of 40 to 50 beats per minute, but rising to over 250 beats at maximum effort, accounting for the horse's superb speed and acceleration. It is normal for blood pressure to rise during exertion in a healthy horse. This pressure is supported by veins inside the hoof which are compressed by the pressure on the digital cushion. Blood is thereby 'pumped' up the leg.
Why worry about bleeding? One consequence of bleeding is the formation of scar tissue. Clearly, over time, the oxygen exchange function of the lung may become reduced. Sometimes it is decided to euthanize "bleeding" horses. Researchers carrying out autopsy have seen signs of leakage from the lung capillaries. This is how the blood gets into the airway. The condition can become more severe if it continues for some years. It is obviously desirable to keep the lungs in good condition and racing fit for best performance from the horse.
Bleeding is not inevitable There have been no documented cases of bleeding in wild horses when rounded up from mountain tops into pens miles away. Read about a recent roundup here.
The opinions expressed in these links are not necessarily the opinions of Signal-Health LLC, Signal-Health Canada Inc. or Therapina Ltd.
There have been no documented cases of bleeding in horses used in the Pony Express when horses were galloped 10 to 15 miles between relay stations. For more details, check the Pony Express Historic Research Study here.
Is there a positive test for bleeding? If bleeding is suspected the simple answer is to have the vet inspect the windpipe with an endoscope (known as 'scoping), one or more hours after vigorous exercise. A vet 'scoping horses is a familiar sight before race days in busy professional racing yards. There are other signs the horse owner can look out for. All horses have high blood pressure when running but, in a bleeder, it is slightly higher than normal. Inspection of the horse after a workout may show that the nostrils are a brighter red than normal. There may be redness or red lines at the side of the eyes. Extra pressure and bleeding may result in the horse stopping for no reason. For example, in show jumping, when the horse has done well over the first six jumps, then stops for no reason and starts to shake its head. This is typical behavior associated with extra high pressure. Racehorses rarely pull up as a result of the extra pressure, although they do sometimes. Racehorses will usually keep going, fuelled by adrenaline and competition with the other horses, but they can be bleeding from the lungs all the way. Another sign to look for is a dull dry coat, caused by poor circulation in the skin.
How can this bleeding condition be corrected? "There is no satisfactory treatment" states the British Horse Society Veterinary Manual 2003, recommending against any attempted first aid for "bleeders". But now there is a way of stopping bleeding which is not first aid, and which is not just temporary. The application of a fresh Equiwinner patch, an inert device, each day for ten days restores normal homeostasis by resetting the electrolyte balance to optimum. Without proper homeostasis, numerous blood capillaries, which have walls of only one cell thickness, are destroyed or lost. The loss (or rarefaction) of capillaries raises blood pressure above normal during exertion.
Equiwinner starts to work almost immediately and, combined with only walking exercise for a total of fifteen days (see product instructions), restores capillaries to prevent the extra high blood pressure. The horse will have had lung tissue scars, caused by previous bleeding, and this Equiwinner procedure will allow the scars to fully heal. Normal training or competition can then be resumed with confidence.
Read what race horse trainers are saying about Equiwinner here.
Read what barrel racers are saying about Equiwinner here.
The Equiwinner Patch is an inert device that works by fuzzy logic signaling, a new patented technology. Nothing from the Equiwinner Patch enters the body of the horse, so that the Equiwinner patch is safe to use in all competitive sport and racing, and will not test positive. It is important to follow the use of the patches every day for ten days to reinforce the new healthy habituation. By following the Equiwinner patches instructions, the horse should be free of the condition of bleeding for the rest of the season, or up to twelve months. It is to be hoped that every horse owner would wish to keep high performance horses in the best possible condition by use of this very simple device, the Equiwinner patch.
Nutrition can either help maintain proper electrolyte balance or it can completely unbalance electrolytes. For more information on nutrition, click here.
Because Equiwinner tackles the cause of the bleeding, instead of just trying to suppress the symptoms, Equiwinner is guaranteed to work to stop bleeding every time. After using Equiwinner the horse has healthy circulation and lungs, and the performance of the horse then increases.
Caution! Other cases of nose bleeding, such as injury, and particularly those cases not directly associated with exercise, may have a cause other than the normal bleeding condition described above and should be investigated by a competent person.
Use the phone back service to find out how Equiwinner can help your horse.
