Use the Air Quality Index as a screening tool—not automatic clearance. The safest decision also accounts for the recent AQI trend, hours or days of prior smoke exposure, visible smoke or ash, heat and humidity, hauling load, and what the horse is doing at rest.
Check the current AQI, forecast, nearby monitors, smoke map, visible haze, ash, odor, wind, heat, and humidity.
Look back across the day and recent days. A brief dip can sit inside a longer smoke event or reverse as wind shifts.
Compare breathing, coughing, nasal discharge, attitude, water interest, and recovery with that horse’s normal baseline.
Warm-up, speed work, jumping, hills, hauling, indoor dust, and heat all add respiratory demand.
Be more conservative with respiratory history, recent illness, advanced age, pregnancy, or a horse already showing changes.
Follow emergency alerts, venue decisions, governing-body guidance, and your veterinarian’s advice.
Enter a current U.S. AQI reading. This returns a conservative planning prompt; it does not diagnose a horse or clear one to exercise.
The U.S. AQI was designed for people, and equine-specific evidence for every AQI band is limited. Use these categories as a screening framework, then apply local conditions and veterinary judgment.
| AQI | U.S. category | Conservative horse planning |
|---|---|---|
| 0–50 | Good | Conditions are generally favorable, but still check visible smoke, dust, heat, the trend, and the individual horse. |
| 51–100 | Moderate | Review the trend and local smoke conditions. Be conservative with horses that have respiratory history or are not acting normal. |
| 101–150 | Unhealthy for sensitive groups | Reduce or avoid strenuous work, especially for vulnerable horses. Recheck the horse, forecast, venue, and route before traveling. |
| 151–200 | Unhealthy | Exercise is not recommended. US Equestrian strongly recommends suspending or cancelling competition above 150. |
| 201–300 | Very unhealthy | Avoid exercise. Prioritize cleaner air, low-dust management, water, monitoring, and local emergency guidance. |
| 301–500 | Hazardous | Treat this as an emergency-planning environment. Avoid exercise and follow local air-quality, fire, evacuation, and veterinary direction. |
Not from that fact alone. A lower current reading is useful, but it does not erase earlier exposure or show how stable the improvement will be.
Check the route, destination, forecast, trailer ventilation, unloading plan, and withdrawal policy. A good number at home does not clear the trip.
An indoor arena is not automatically cleaner. Consider ventilation, open doors, dust, footing, idling vehicles, and whether outdoor smoke is entering the building.
Normal appearance is reassuring, but continue monitoring and do not jump directly into hard work based on one better reading.
Organizer decisions do not replace the rider’s individual risk assessment. Consider the horse, accumulated exposure, travel, intensity, and current veterinary guidance.
Breathing rate and effort, nostril flare, cough, nasal discharge, eye irritation, attitude, appetite, and water interest.
Whether breathing rises out of proportion, the horse feels dull, coordination changes, or the horse does not recover as expected.
New cough, discharge, abnormal breathing, reduced willingness, or delayed recovery can justify a veterinary call even after the sky looks clearer.
Know the horse’s normal resting respiratory pattern before smoke season. Count only when the horse is quiet and not hot, stressed, eating, or moving. A veterinarian should interpret abnormal or changing findings.
Do not use the first green or yellow hour as an automatic restart. The return plan depends on how heavy and prolonged the exposure was, whether the horse developed signs, its respiratory history, and veterinary guidance.
Keep clean water close to where the horse eats. Use lower-dust forage and bedding; follow veterinary advice on soaking or other dust-reduction steps.
Avoid sweeping, blowing aisles, dragging dry footing, or running engines near horses during smoke events.
Balance smoke, heat, and airflow. Closing a hot barn without a plan can create a different risk; use local conditions and professional guidance.
Save AirNow, local emergency alerts, your veterinarian, hauler, venue, and evacuation contacts before conditions deteriorate.
Keep the riding-decision ranges where trainers, staff, parents, and exhibitors can check them before the horse is tacked up or loaded.
Not automatically. A single current reading does not show the horse’s earlier exposure or how quickly conditions may change. Check the recent trend, visible smoke or ash, local alerts, heat, hauling, recovery, and breathing at rest.
US Equestrian states that exercise is not recommended when AQI is over 150 and strongly recommends suspending or cancelling competitions above 150. AQI is a human index, so use local conditions, the individual horse, and veterinary guidance rather than treating any lower number as guaranteed safe.
Only after checking the building itself. Indoor arenas can still contain smoke, fine particles, dust, poor ventilation, heat, and exhaust. An indoor roof is not proof of clean air.
Check the route, destination, forecast, venue monitoring plan, trailer ventilation, workload, and the horse. Conditions at home do not clear the entire trip.
Call for abnormal breathing at rest, obvious nostril flare, increased abdominal effort, repetitive or deep coughing, abnormal nasal discharge, weakness, distress, or delayed recovery. Also call after prolonged or heavy exposure when you are unsure how long to rest.
It depends on the intensity and duration of exposure and whether the horse developed respiratory signs. Veterinary guidance may call for significant rest after smoke inhalation. Do not restart hard work from one improved AQI reading.
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