Please post this question to RideCamp for me. I'd greatly appreciate any information I can gather.
I am a periodic visitor since I am not an endurance rider, but I do have a breathing issue that is tripping up my vet and wanted to see if it was something more common in the endurance arena. Please bear with me as I try to describe this condition. My mare "thumped" on me earlier this year-I was able to find out what that was at least (thanks mostly to this site!). Since then she has not done so but has shown extremel shortness of breath when dealing with steep hill climbs. Her nostrils flare and she pants-it almost looks like she is hyperventilating. Obviously we stop, regain her breath and she tells me when she is ok to go on. However, she does this quite often and none of the other horses seem to show this extreme. She does not seem to show this at any other time. We trotted her for a good 20 minutes straight on the flats for the vet and nothing happened-regular respiration and heart rate recovery. Our vet checked her heart, lungs and did bloodwork and had no abnormalities. We ride mostly at a walk and the horses are not in excellent condition, but the other horses don't seem to run into this issue. She was so fatigued the second time this happened that she slipped off a side hill and was unable to recover her footing when the trail gave way. Needless to say, neither of us want to repeat that experience! I have been referred to Micheal Foss DVM, an endurance vet in our general area and will be contacting him later this aftenoon. I would greatly appreciate any other information I can glean, though. Thanks!
