Wildfires, the Horse Show Community, and Protecting Your Equine Athlete

As wildfire smoke from massive blazes across Canada blankets North America, a gray-orange haze has become an all-too-familiar sight over the show ring. For equestrians, a bad air quality day isn't just an inconvenience—it poses serious, immediate risks to our horses' respiratory systems.

A horse at rest breathes roughly 10,000 to 20,000 liters of air a day. When they work, that volume increases exponentially. As smoke drifts across the continent, the equestrian community is learning to manage a new, hazardous variable.

The Reality on the Ground: Traverse City and Saugerties

For years, horse shows only faced cancellations due to severe thunderstorms or extreme heatwaves. Today, the Air Quality Index (AQI) is routinely written on show office whiteboards next to the class schedule. When the index spikes, organizers face agonizing decisions. Grooms working the back barns in heavily affected regions have reported everything from scratchy throats to headaches—a stark reminder that if the air is uncomfortable for human handlers, it is incredibly taxing on the horses.

The localized impact of these fires became vividly clear at major summer circuits like Traverse City Horse Shows in Michigan and HITS Hudson Valley in Saugerties, New York.

At Flintfields Horse Park in Traverse City, management was forced to make the unprecedented decision to halt competition entirely when the AQI spiked into the hazardous "301 and above" tier. While national hunter/jumper classes faced major delays, organizers ultimately canceled high-level FEI classes entirely. Because grand prix tracks place immense physical demands on a horse's cardiovascular system, forcing them to gallop and jump in a heavy haze was a risk officials simply weren't willing to take.

Meanwhile, in Saugerties, exhibitors have had to closely monitor local AQI updates and coordinate with veterinarians right on the show grounds. These disruptions have introduced immense logistical and economic strain, forcing riders to scratch from long-awaited events to avoid the danger of trailering horses through peak smoke.

Smoke Management Protocol: How to Protect Your Horse

If your barn or horse show venue is under an air quality alert, you need to alter your daily management routine immediately. Use these core strategies to mitigate respiratory damage:

1. Stop All Strenuous Exercise

When the AQI rises above 100, sensitive horses (those with a history of heaves or asthma) should be scratched from work. If the AQI exceeds 150, all hard arena work, jumping, and galloping must stop. Limit activity to a light walk, or give the horse complete time off. Forcing an equine athlete to exert themselves in smoky conditions pulls fine particulates deep into the lungs, causing permanent inflammation and scarring. As grooms at the Traverse City circuit noted during the worst of the smoke, the daily routine had to pivot strictly to light hand-walking or short tack-walks just to keep horses moving without causing heavy breathing.

2. Maximize Hydration

Keep fresh, clean water immediately next to your horse’s feeding area. Horses do the majority of their drinking within two hours of eating hay. Ample water intake keeps the respiratory tract’s mucous membranes moist. Well-hydrated airways are mechanically capable of "sweeping" out inhaled ash and dust particles; dry airways trap them.

3. Eliminate Environmental Dust

Wildfire smoke is already overloading your horse's lungs—do not add stable dust to the mix.

Soak your hay: Submerge hay in water before feeding to eliminate airborne dust, mold, and pollen.

Avoid unnecessary therapies without a vet: While it might be tempting to use a nebulizer to help a coughing horse, many veterinarians at affected shows caution against it during peak smoke. Nebulizing can sometimes cause a horse to inhale more deeply, accidentally pushing ambient ash particles further down into the lower airways.

Wet the arena and aisles: If you must use an indoor or outdoor arena for turnout, water it down heavily. Avoid sweeping aisles or cleaning stalls while horses are inside.

4. Monitor Vital Signs Daily

Get a baseline of your horse’s resting vitals and check them daily. A normal resting respiratory rate is 12 to 24 breaths per minute.

When to call the vet: If your horse's resting respiratory rate consistently exceeds 30 breaths per minute, or if you note nostril flaring, an abdominal "heave line," a deep cough, or watery nasal discharge, contact your veterinarian immediately.

The Long Road to Recovery

One of the biggest mistakes riders make is putting their horse back into full training the moment the blue sky returns. Lung tissue damaged by microscopic ash takes 4 to 6 weeks to fully heal.

If your horse was stabled in a smoke-affected region like Traverse City or Saugerties during a severe fire event, plan for a minimum of 2 weeks of complete rest after the air quality returns to a healthy, green tier. Introduce work gradually, listening closely to their wind, to ensure your partner stays healthy for the remainder of the season.