One of my favorite types of companies to partner with on Eventing Nation are companies with a great product that a lot of people have heard of but don’t know a lot about. In this case, I am, of course, talking about FLAIR® Nasal Strips, who has just joined EN as a sponsor. You can find the FLAIR banner in the sidebar in rotation with the tall Point-Two banner.
I’ll admit that before we started chatting with FLAIR about sponsorship on Eventing Nation, I only used FLAIR Strips a couple of times and the same goes for my horses. I assumed that they were not meant for my lower level horse and I figured my upper level horse never had issues with making the time or recovering at three-days so why mess with something that wasn’t broken? After a few conversations with FLAIR’s owner Jim, who is a vet, and after reading nearly a dozen research studies about Nasal Strips, I quickly realized that I had a pretty nearsighted view of horse respiratory health. Here are a few things I learned:
1) The FLAIR Nasal Strip is one of the most researched drug-free products in the equestrian world. It would take a week’s worth of posts on Eventing Nation to go through all of the research studies, but the point is that whether we are talking about VO2 thresholds, Broncho-alveolar lavage fluid (say that 5 times fast), tracheal pressure, airflow, or heart rate, the results are the same: FLAIR Strips make it easier for the horse to breathe.
2) Top riders all over the world use FLAIR Strips. One of the things I spoke with Jim about was the brilliance of making the FLAIR Strips available in white–it made them visible on bay horses and I suddenly noticed that a lot more horses used FLAIR Strips than I had previously thought. Although the word is that black might be coming back, as well as maybe clear Strips so stay tuned for that.
3) FLAIR Nasal Strips are important for horses at every level…well, almost every level. If a horse is breathing hard when it crosses the finish line, then it could benefit from having its collapsing nasal airways supported by a FLAIR Strip. Sometimes I feel like novice and training horses can work harder than prelim and intermediate horses depending on the differences in relative fitness. My prelim warmblood usually finished cross-country breathing heavier than my intermediate thoroughbred–both are going to start using FLAIR Strips all the time. 

4) As a company, FLAIR’s stated number one priority is horse health. Improving performance is a big goal, but nothing is more important than horse health. Studies have shows that most horses who exercise at more than a canter bleed in the their lungs and that FLAIR Strips help reduce that bleeding. We’re talking about both lower and upper level horses. While FLAIR Strips are less common in stadium jumping, when we consider lung bleeding and the unique link horses have between breathing and stride at the fast canter, there are benefits here too.
We’ll be talking about the science of FLAIR Nasal Strips more over the next few weeks and I might even try to write about one of the research studies if I can find a way to make it entertaining. Many of us are already looking ahead to the spring eventing season and I, for one, am excited to get out and use FLAIR Strips–heck, I might even try one on an early canter set. It’s a pleasure to welcome FLAIR into Eventing Nation. Go eventing.
