Approximately 40-50 people attended the "Heavey Horse" table topic, which took place at the 2008 American Association of Equine Practitioners convention, held Dec. 6-10 in San Diego, Calif. The discussion covered a number of areas, including the pathophysiology of recurrent airway obstruction (RAO, also called heaves) and its diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

The causes of RAO are known to be inhaled allergens and irritants from the horse's diet and environment, especially mold spores from straw bedding and hay, but they can also include other materials, such as dust containing endotoxin and other irritant materials. In fact, it has recently been suggested that we should term this disease as "inflammergic" rather than allergic due to the variety of stimuli that can set off an attack.