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Summertime Care of the Horse
Summertime Care and Riding Horses
Introduction
Experience with horses suggests that they are suited for the cooler, drier times of the year at least here in the middle latitudes. Horses in the middle of a hot, humid summer day are sluggish, sweaty and, in short, miserable. Ride a horse on a very hot day and you run the risk of making him ill. The problem boils down to an inability to get rid of excess heat during hot, humid days. The horse has trouble maintaining an ideal internal temperature at 100 when the outside temperature gets above 80 degrees, particularly when it is humid and you throw riding on top of a hot day. This article explains how to calculate the environmental heat stress and how to best deal with it.
Heat Index
The body has mechanisms to lower its temperature: radiation, conduction, and evaporation are the most important. Radiation and conduction depend on the environmental temperature to be lower than the body's temperature, and they are aided by the wind. Evaporation requires that the air not be saturated with moisture. The lower the humidity and the faster the wind, the quicker sweat will evaporate and the better the cooling. The above can be expressed in a simple formula that helps you decide how bad current conditions might be:
- Temperature (Fahrenheit) + relative humidity - wind speed (in mph) = Relative danger
- Under 150, overheating is not a serious problem.
- Between 150 and 170, exercise care while exercising the out of condition horse.
- Over 170 will severely compromise thermoregulation, so extreme caution is required even with well-conditioned horses.
- Over 180 horses should not be stressed.
Does Endophyte Infected Fescue Increase Heat Intolerance
Early research by North Carolina State Veterinary College in conjunction with Clemson University suggests that just like in cattle, endophyte infected fescue can interfere with a horses ability to cool following exercise. When temperature and heart rate were measured following exercise significant differences existed between horses grazing infected and uninfected fescue pastures. Those horses on uninfected pastures returned to baseline levels roughly 2/3rds quicker than those grazing endophyte. The changes occurred within 2 weeks of being moved to infected / uninfected pastures. The changes are such that casual riders are not likely to experience problems but those involved with endeavors where endurance is a concern may notice significant differences in performance.
Electrolytes
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