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Summer Horse Care
As horse owners, we all enjoy the summer months, after all there's less mud, more daylight and more time to ride. However with summer comes the usual suspects – flies, hard ground, deep arena surfaces, sun-burn and the very real chance that your horse could suffer from heat stress.
Whether you plan to travel and compete your horse this summer or simply want to ensure that your horse doesn’t suffer from heat stress, Carl Hester gives his top tips:
If you plan to compete your horse over the summer months, then you should be careful as the temperature soars. If your horse looks like he has heat stress, you should immediately stop your work out and remove the saddle and walk the horse around slowly, preferably under a shaded area. Cold water sponged or hosed over the horse’s body is ideal, but to help prevent a ‘heating’ layer between you and the horse, sweat scrape the excess water off and re-hose and then scrape the excess off again and then repeat again and again.
Offer the horse water, you should never prevent a hot or thirsty horse from drinking water, however opinions are divided on how much is acceptable if the horse is hot.
To try and avoid heat stroke, you should aim to ride earlier in the day and use minimal tack on hot days (leave off boots etc). If you have to ride during the heat, take it easy, don’t undertake a strenuous warm-up prior to your test and after your test, take the above measures as well as making sure that your horse has shelter out of the sun’s glare when tied up to the lorry. Being sensible and vigilant is imperative to avoiding heat stroke. Also aim to travel long distances early morning and evening, when the temperature starts to drop and always offer water at regular intervals and open all the windows in the horse area to allow a good flow of air to circulate. Providing electrolytes is important too. Adding electrolytes to your horses feed or water when you know he will be working hard a few days before is key. However, if putting them in his water, always provide another bucket of clean, plain water too. We have created electrolyte syringes within the Carl Hester Performance Range, which give riders peace of mind, by allowing them to give direct and concise electrolytes, as and when needed either in addition to their maintenance electrolytes or as immediate replenishment, making them ideal for competition horses that could be at risk.
It also goes without saying, but a fat horse will be more at risk of heat exhaustion than a fit horse; due to the energy required to move around is greater, and coupled with the layers of fat making it harder for his blood to make it to the surface for cooling.
Cooler rugs are popular these days, however in really warm weather, you want his body heat to transfer to the air and blow away, not be trapped close to him.
Salt is also an important ingredient in your horse’s diet and should be added daily.
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