Hot Weather Horse Care: Common Sense Tips

The most important tip is:

1. Provide Clean & Cool (emphasis on clean & cool) fresh water and shade from trees, shrubs or structures. Also, keep water in the shade, if the water is not cool enough it may to the horses’ heat load.

2. Where shade is absent, limit turn out to mornings and after 5:30 PM

3. In barns and other enclosed structures, keep air moving near the ceiling since hot air rises. Let the hot air out. Open all doors and windows. Promote lots of air circulation. A side benefit is that flies do not do well in the wind.

4. Limit or eliminate exercise. Michael Lindinger, PhD, MSC, an animal and exercise physiologist at the University of Guelph, explains “It only takes 17 minutes of moderate intensity exercise in hot, humid weather to raise a horse’s temperature to dangerous levels. That’s 3 to 10 times faster than in humans. Horses feel the heat much worse than we do, and the effects can be serious. If a horse’s body temperature shoots up from the normal 98.6 to 105.8°F temperatures within working muscles may be as high as 109.4°F, a temperature at which proteins in muscle begin to denature (cook). Horses suffering excessive heat stress may experience hypotension, colic, and renal failure.”