I have a friend who owns a beautiful 5 year old. Now, I have been around horses almost all my life, and last night, this horse had hicups!! Really loud ones!! I have never heard a horse with hicups before, and I have been around a lot of horses..... I have also never had anyone tell me that their horses sometimes have hicups. (I almost wonder where I have been all these years???)
It was actually kinda cute to watch him while hicuping, cause he has such a ''baby face''....but I was wondering if this was normal, and what could be causing them? I must add that when he is on cross ties, he tends to get a ''little anxious'', so maybe this is what causes them, because this seemed to start when he was ''becoming anxious'' on the cross ties.
Has anyone out there ever had, or heard of, another horse that has had hicups before? They sounded like real human hicups...

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Here's a cute story on hicuping horses and it tells you how it is caused. It's very simular to humans

http://www.ecmagazine.net/sp04htm/hiccupsp04.htm

Well I must say I did not know this either, very interesting and cute to read.

And it surprises me more horses don't get them. Tension can be a cause of hiccups because we gulp air when we are tense and not breathing deep enough. Well horses hold their breath when we are riding them and they are tense. Just try deep breathing while you are riding and see how much your horse relaxes and starts to blow means he is breathing more too.

Tense ride holding breath = same for horse.

my gelding has hicups all the time!... but hes also a cribber... maybe this makes then more common? i dont know, but its sure funny when he gets them :P

Hicups can also be caused by choke. I had a colt who once had hicups...he had take a bite of grain then got excited and ran off came back and was hicuping! I guess it usually passes.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: HeatherHorseCrazy,

I've also had one in my barn that used to hiccup... poor guy! He was fine... just happened on occasion.

My old boy used to hiccup when I had him on crossties. I'd leave him to go get my saddle and he'd start hiccuping. He used to do it as an evasion to work...lol As soon as he knew he was going to be ridden he'd start the hiccuping as his previous owner would put him back in his stall for a bit when he'd do this with him. I just ignored him and continued tacking up. Eventually he learned that his little ploy wasn't going to work with me. I did have a half leaser at the time and he did the same thing with her...she let him get away with it...everytime he'd start she'd put him in his house thinking he needed a drink...smart fellow...lol

A friend of mine has a mare who would hiccup when stressed out. She used to do it before every ride and at shows. Thankfully, now that her life/rides/shows are relatively stress free doesn't do it anymore.