Weekend Wellness, by Kentucky Performance Products: Cooling Down a Hot Horse
Are you cooling your hot horse correctly?
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Summer’s long days and sunny weather mean more chances for horse owners to get out with their horses, whether for training, competition, or pleasure. Hot summer temperatures also mean it’s especially important to know how to keep your horse cool—and to know how to cool down a hot horse most effectively.
Being able to cool your horse properly (and promptly) after intense exercise or exposure to heat is vitally important. After exercise or in hot conditions, a horse’s body temperature can rise to dangerous levels, which can lead to damaging and potentially deadly problems like dehydration, heat stress, or heat stroke. So knowing how to cool your horse appropriately and rapidly is critical.
Photo courtesy of Kentucky Performance Products
BEFORE YOU RIDE
You can start protecting your horse even before you saddle up:
A handy rule of thumb: if the temperature plus humidity equals more than 180, give your horse the day off from exercise. Horses also need time to acclimate to heat and humidity. If your horse isn’t used to muggy, hot weather, take that into account. Extreme heat is dangerous to horse and human alike. In extreme conditions, even if you already have taken the day off from riding due to hot temperatures and humidity, keep a close eye on your horse: ensure they have plenty of fresh, cool water and shade, cool them with a hose if needed, and offer an appropriately balanced electrolyte supplement so they can replenish the electrolytes that are lost in sweat.
Maintain critical electrolytes in the proper ratios.
Whether they are high-performance equine athletes or a pleasure mount, horses who are exercising or stressed (such as during shipping or illness) in any weather can sweat and lose critical electrolytes—like sodium and chloride—that are essential to muscle function. One way to protect your horse before they step into the summer sun, start exercising, or become stressed, is by supplementing their feed with an electrolyte formulation like Summer Games® Electrolyte. Horses can produce from two to five gallons of sweat an hour, but Summer Games and Summer Games® Plus electrolyte paste replenish important electrolytes and trace minerals in the proper ratio for equine sweat, which helps support faster recovery and maintain normal muscle and nerve function. Summer Games electrolytes also stimulate drinking, helping your horse stay hydrated before, during, and after exercise.
Know your horse’s normal.
It’s important to know your horse’s typical resting and post-exercise heart rate, respiration, and normal temperature range, so you can be aware of changes from that baseline that might indicate stress.
- Normal heart rate. Most horses have a resting heart rate of 28-44 beats per minute
- Normal respiration. For most horses, a normal respiration rate—the number of breaths per minute—is between 10 and 24.
- Normal temperature. Your horse’s temperature should fall between 99° and 101.5° Fahrenheit (or about 37.2° and 38.6° Celsius). Exercise can elevate a healthy horse’s temperature a degree or two without harm, as long as the horse’s temperature drops back to a normal level within 90 minutes post-exercise.
Plan ahead.
Keep an eye on the weather forecast is one easy step. Others include making sure that there’s a handy source of cold water near where your horse will be exercising or competing, bringing ample water when you trailer your horse, and planning any trailer trips at cooler times of day.
FOUR-STEP COOL-DOWN
Photo courtesy of Kentucky Performance Products
After exercise, the following steps can help bring your horse’s core temperature down.
- Walk. Walking your horse for 10-15 minutes brings their heart and respiratory rate down, and also helps dissipate the heat they’ve generated while working. Removing the tack and walking with occasional pauses to apply cold water can also help lower your horse’s core temperature quickly.
- Seek shade and ventilation. Keeping your horse in a shady, well-ventilated area will support cooling. Fans also help with cooling.
- Focus on large muscle groups. When hosing after exercise, prioritize applying cold water to your horse’s large muscle groups: chest, shoulders, flanks, and rump.
- Hydrate. Offer your horse clean, cool water frequently; it’s a myth that horses shouldn’t drink immediately after exercise. If they are reluctant to drink, try offering them two buckets of water, one clean and one with a touch of apple juice or electrolytes, which can tempt them to drink.
SIGNS OF HEAT STRESS
A hot horse isn’t just uncomfortable—they also can be at risk for heat stress or heat stroke.
Heat stress, or heat exhaustion, often is associated with the loss of fluids and electrolytes in sweat after strenuous exercise or over time in stifling heat and humidity. Heat stress can progress to potentially fatal heat stroke, so it’s vital to recognize and address heat stress signs fast:
Panting or abnormally rapid breathing (more than 40-50 breaths per minute) that does not decrease with a half-hour of exercise
- Heart rate above 60-80 beats per minute that does not moderate
- Excessive sweating or lack of sweat
- Rectal temperature higher than 103º
- Dark, discolored, or bright red gums
- A tacky, rather than wet or slimy feel to the horse’s gums
- Slow capillary refill time: when you press and release your fingertip against a horse’s gum, the gum’s pinkish color should return within two seconds
- Poor skin elasticity or “tenting” of skin on the shoulder for several seconds when pinched and released
- Dark urine or low urine production
- Reduced gut sounds
- Stumbling, lack of coordination, or weakness
- Lethargy, unusual agitation, or disorientation
If your horse shows these symptoms, initiate cooling immediately and contact your veterinarian.
About Kentucky Performance Products, LLC:
Performance horses are susceptible to exercise-induced muscle damage. Vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant, limits the damage caused by everyday oxidative stress. It maintains healthy muscle and nerve functions, and supports a strong immune system in horses of all ages. Elevate was developed to provide a highly bioavailable source of natural vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopheryl acetate) to horses.
Check out this KPP article: Vitamin E and the Performance Horse – A Winning Combination.
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