16/07/2022
Od wtorku wracają upały🌞
Given the beautiful weather 🌞 we are having in the UK at the moment, I just wanted to try and help owners keep their horses safe. There is so much scaremongering and false information out there. Keep your animals cool in this hot weather ☀️ don’t assume they will keep themselves cool.
- Do offer horses water 💦 straight after exercise, half a bucket at a time with a few minutes in between for them to catch their breath. Cold is fine but not ice cold when they are very thirsty.
- Have water available constantly, and change the water regularly to keep it fresh and encourage the horse to drink. You can put ice cubes 🧊 in the bucket providing the horse is not very thirsty and likely to gulp it down in one.
- If your horse stubbornly refuses to drink 🍹, try adding a large handful of their favourite mash or beet to a bucket of cold water to tempt them. Some like the taste of Apple 🍎 cordial too! Remember to always leave a bucket of plain water too, in case they don’t approve.
- Horses can lose a lot of electrolytes through sweat 🥵, replace these in the feed and always have a salt lick on offer 👅 . Don’t put salt in the horses daily water. It is good to offer an electrolyte solution immediately after exercise to rehydrate the horse (many recipes are available online) but once it has been finished, provide fresh water again.
- Cold hose 🚿 a hot horse constantly, scrape or don’t, it doesn’t matter, just keep the cold water pouring over them constantly until they are cool to touch 🥶 and leave them to drip dry
- When you turn your horse out, soak them in water 🚿 first, and their fly rug. It will keep them cooler for longer. It is absolutely safe to turn out a soaking wet horse. Consider how you stay cool on holiday.
- In large fields, make sure there is more than one water 💦 point and they are spread out. They won’t walk 20 acres unless they’re desperate, by then it could be too late and could have heat stroke 🥵. Dominant horses 🐴 can chase the lower pecking order horses away from water too.
- keep the flies 🪰 off them. Horses 🐎 will run themselves into a frenzy 😵💫 due to the horse flies that are everywhere at the moment. Guaranteed heat stroke 🥵 use light coloured fly rugs, fly masks, fly sprays or bring them in away from the flies. Whatever works for your situation.
- horses with pink skin are likely to get sun 🌞 burn, especially around the nose 👃 and eyes 👀. Applying sun screen factor 50 can help but usually rubs or washes off in the water 💧 trough after a few hours. UV protection fly masks are available with nose nets and can provide physical protection. Coloureds and double dilutes can also get sun burn on their backs and rumps, a fly sheet with UV protection can stop this.
- If they have plenty of natural shade 🌳 in the field, leave them out, if not, bring them in. Be sensible, is your stable cooler or the field cooler? Stand where for horse is for half an hour and see how you feel.
- If you can’t stand in their stable for half an hour ⏰ without sweating, they shouldn’t have to. Find a cooler stable for them.
- Keep your beds spotlessly clean. Heat and urine can cause lung damage due to the ammonia, plus urine and droppings 💩 attract flies 🪰 . Studies have shown that if you can smell 👃 the urine, it is already at a dangerous level ⚠️.
- If you want to ride, make it very early or very late 🌙 when it is cooler. Or go for a leisurely walk hack in a shaded area 🌲. If your horse/pony has breathing difficulties anyway (eg hay fever or RAO) do not ride them until the weather cools down.
- It is tempting to go to the beach 🏝 or on fast farm rides 🪵 when the sun is out, but remember only do fast work either very early or very late when the temperature is cooler.
- Take extra caution if you like to bandage 🩹 or boot 🥾 your horse for rides or the field. Studies have shown that fleece bandages cause enough heat to damage tendons even in cool weather, let alone a heat wave. Consider the breathable mesh boots available rather than neoprene or fleece.
- Be sensible if travelling your horse 🚛, A moving horsebox is usually a cool horsebox. But can you guarantee you will not get stuck in traffic? Or break down? You could get into big trouble very quickly. 😳
Enjoy our rare and beautiful weather! Look after yourselves too 🌞🌞🧊🧊