After being ridden once a day for a couple hours at an event where it’s hot and humid, hose the horse off and put him in a stall with a fan.
Hot and humid weather can cause horses to become overheated. Heat stress and hot-weather dangers are nothing to take lightly. When a horse overheats, along comes a whole host of horrors, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
Horses produce large amounts of heat, mainly through digestion of feed and muscular activity during exercise. If the air is cooler than the horse’s body temperature, blood is shunted to the skin where the horse easily rids himself of the excessive heat. However, if the air temperature is warmer than the horse’s body temperature, blood shunting is not enough, and sweating becomes the primary means by which the horse cools himself. The horse is the only mammal, other than man, that cools itself primarily by sweating. This wets the body so cooling, due to evaporation, can occur.
CLICK HERE to read the rest of the article from The American Quarter Horse Journal.
