26/07/2022
We are in for a hot stretch over the next few days and there are a few things we can do to help our equine partners beat the heat:
Two things first and foremost are shade and fresh water being readily available at all times, along with salt.
According to University of Guelph researchers, they determined that horses succumb to heat stress three to 10 times faster during workouts than their two-legged counterparts. Horses are large and possess higher percentages of active muscle than humans do during exercise—muscle that produces a lot of heat during use. Also, less sweat evaporates from equine athletes’ bodies as compared to human athletes simply because the horse produces much more sweat than can be evaporated.
Ride in the early morning or in the evening and maybe shorten your 45 minute workout to 20 minutes, especially on those humid days.
Avoid riding your horse when the combined air temperature (F) and relative humidity is over 150, especially if the horse is not acclimated to the heat.
After a ride, hose the neck and chest areas first. Cooling off the jugular vein area, you cool the blood coming back to the heart, which helps to cool the body internally. Adding a bit of alcohol to a sponge bath can also increase the rate of evaporation. Adding a fan helps even more.
Enjoy the summer while it lasts!
