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Permalink Reply by Geoffrey Pannell on March 22, 2009 at 7:39pm

Hi Catherine, I think I can help you with this, as I live in Australia and have to deal with hot weather all the time . Management after exersise is most important, remove all gear ,particularly padded bandages , to allow the tendons to lose heat accumulated during exercise. Wash down with a hose and scrape the water off strait away, don't leave water to drip dry off the horse as the body temp of the horse will quickly heat up the water and you will raise the temp of the horse not lower it. If you have a refridgerator in your barn put some wet towels in it so when you are untacking you can through one over the neck of the horse to start the cool down asap. Hosing under the belly, between the hind legs, improves heat loss from heat trapped in the gut contents after exercise. Hose the neck and limbs throughly, to assist the removal of heat being evaporated by sweating and radiated through the skin as blood is diverted from the iner core of the body to the skin layer to of load heat. If you are at an event and its hot always have someone to help scrape the water off as you wash down the horse , Body temp will decrease more slowly due to the insulating effect of the water trapped in the coat. If the horse is panting to supplement its heat loss, walk the animal to promote air flow and aid evaporation while you are hoseing and scapeing . Faning with a saddle blanket can help to improve cooling in a very hot , panting horse. Allow the horse to cool-out before travelling as the horse will heat up again in a trailer , particularly if they are in with another horse . Avoid offering very cold water immediatly after hard exercise . If a horse is to immediatly continue exercise, such as an endurance horse given a drink at a creek or a dam on a ride, free access to cool water is unlikely to cause stomach cramps. However, if a horse is to be rested , then it is wise to offer the thirsty horse only 2-4 litres of cooled water(not chilled) or a rehydration drink initially, with free access after 10-15 minutes . I'll continue this later, the farrier has just arrived. Cheers Geoffrey

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Permalink Reply by Geoffrey Pannell on March 22, 2009 at 8:29pm

False alarm, where were we? Oh yes ,it goes with out saying to work you horse in the coolest part of the day , very early in the morning , or in the cool of the evening if its very hot and humid. Horses take up to 4 hours to cool down after work, and evening workouts result in faster cooling down as ambient temps normally drop after sunset. Up to 60% of the heat loss after exercise in the cool of the evening is by evaporation. FEEDING , the feed ration can be modifided to reduce the amount of heat 'waste' produced in the hindgut during the fermentation and digestive processes. Hay and fibrous foods , such as oatsand wheet bran, produce more wasteful heat during digestion than more dense carbohydrate feeds such as corn and barley, and least of all , fats. The fermentation process in the large bowel that digests roughage, fibrous foods, and excess protein is heat producing , which can be useful in cold weather. In a working horse, extra digestive heat increases the heat load that needs to be lost during hot weather and following exercise. This can cause elevated heart and respiratory rates as the body temp is increased during exercise, and the animal pants to lose heat. In turn ,this leads to higher sweet loss and increased risk of dehydration, body salt depletion and overall heat stress in a working horse. Ensure the total amount of roughage as hay and chaff is maintained at a minimum of 45% by weight of the ration. reduce the weight of oats by at least half or completely in a hard working horse, then substitute to maintain an equivalent energy content by replacing the oats removed with a mix of cracked corn, steam rolled barley, fat or an extruded feed in the ration. These types of feeds give a smaller volume, less fibrous mixture of higher energy density and reduce heat waste. In endurance and long distance training, it is a practical advantage to substitute 10% by weight of the grain portion of thr ration with oil, to further minimise heat waste. These are things that I have done over many years and have never had a horse affected by the heat in compitions , during or after. Some of the more obvious things are to make sure you dampen all feeds, particularly the evening feed to provide more overall fluid intake in hot weather, Provide rehydration drinks after travelling or hard work to rapidly replace fluid and electrolytes . Locate feeders in a shady spot. Supply cool, clean water at all times. Maintain a short hair coat. I hope this has been of some help to to you , and good luck on your effort to get a place in the NAJYRC TEAM. Cheers Geoffrey

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Permalink Reply by Catherine Chamberlain on March 22, 2009 at 9:09pm

Thanks so much! I'm sure this will all help during the hot summer months!

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Permalink Reply by Lucy on March 23, 2009 at 11:26am

Great advice Geoffrey. I actually find that working in the cooler part of the day is better for human too. Don't want to have yourself sick from the heat either. I also avoid riding on extreme heat days and give my horse that day as a rest day. No need to push them through extreme heat. They also do sell cool-max girths and saddle pads, that absorb sweat and keep the horse cooler during workouts.

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Permalink Reply by Catherine Chamberlain on March 23, 2009 at 9:43pm

I'll definately have to check out those girths and saddle pads. Thanks for the advice!

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Permalink Reply by Hannah on April 20, 2009 at 4:22pm

Hi! This might sound stupid coming from someone who lives in a country this far north, but believe me, it can get really hot here as well. Last summer we had a few weeks with a really bad heat weave and with temperatures at around 40 C during the day. I was desperate to find a way to exercise my horses without them being too hot. The horses here are not used to such high temperatures and I really didn't know what to do.

Late one night I was out riding and I discovered that the temperature in and around the river was cool and perfect for the horses! so the next day i took the horses swimming.

This is a great way for the horses to exercise in warm weather. The horses could actually walk along the bottom of the river even tho it was really deep and the only thing sticking up were their heads. They could change between walking and swimming and I found that they preferred walking on the bottom but with water covering their whole body.

I'm sure you were thinking more about dressage or jumping, but if you're really desperate this might be something to think about? I'm sure you know hydrotherapy is very good for muscles and tendons all over the horse.

The picture is of the Pony and me last summer. This pony is known for exploding all over all the time but i've never had her this calm for such a long time as when we were swimming. She's obviously enjoying it ;)

That is my answer to what to do when the weather is too hot. Hope you have a chance to try it.

Hannah

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Permalink Reply by Catherine Chamberlain on April 20, 2009 at 8:36pm

That sounds fun as well as helpful! I'm going to visit my aunt's ranch for a couple weeks this summer and she has a stream nearby. I think I might just have to try it! Thanks for the tip!

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