09/23/2025
I came across a really good article recently that dives into how stress and physical demands affect a horseโs body โ everything from acidโbase balance to soreness, breathing, and recovery.
It was a reminder of something so important:
A good horse doesnโt just stop working. They will keep trying for us, even when theyโre sore, tired, or dealing with things like ulcers, EIPH, or muscle strain.
For a long time, I thought โpushing throughโ was just part of the job. But when I finally started listening to my horse โ paying attention to the little changes, the signs of stress, the subtle ways they were trying to tell me something โ thatโs when everything clicked. Thatโs when I started to understand so much more about what they give us, and how much they depend on us to protect them.
As horse owners, riders, and caretakers, we owe it to them to look deeper, to recognize that performance issues are often just symptoms of something bigger. Listening isnโt weakness โ itโs partnership.
and though it may seem small, this is a huge part of Rodeo Road Essentials, and a huge reason I have chosen ActivateQi for our program too.....
This article gives a good touch on how stress in horses has wide-reaching effects on the body. In the muscles, acidosis makes it harder for enzymes to function and for calcium to move in and out of fibers, leading to cramps, stiffness, and pain after exertion; horses with genetic predispositions such as PSSM or RER are especially sensitive, with stress often triggering tying-up episodes. Chronic low-grade acidosis and electrolyte imbalance also weaken collagen cross-linking and reduce circulation in connective tissues, while stress hormones like cortisol impair repair processes, leaving tendons and ligaments weaker and slower to recover, which increases the risk of tears under heavy load. In the lungs, stress raises heart rate, blood pressure, and pulmonary vascular tone, while acidosis and hypoxia cause vasoconstriction that drives pulmonary pressures higher; during high-intensity galloping this amplifies the risk of EIPH as fragile capillaries rupture. Stress also contributes to ulcers by reducing gastric emptying and blood flow, increasing stomach acid, and reducing protective mucus, with systemic acidosis making the stomach environment even more damaging. Taken together, stress produces a hormonal surge, acidโbase imbalance, and electrolyte shifts that stiffen muscles, weaken connective tissues, increase lung vascular pressures, and erode the stomach lining. Though these conditions may appear different on the surface, they share a common root in stress-induced physiologic imbalance.
