Preventing Your Horse from Becoming Overheated

It's been a long day, and your horse it not responding as well as you want him to. He's moping along without a care in the world, it's a ninety degrees outside and all you want to do it get home to the air conditioner. You kick him into a gallop, but he won't budge. You try again, nothing. He isn't acting that strange, maybe he's breathing a little heavier, sweaty and his tail has foam underneath it. So you decide to check him out back at the barn, but you really don't think you have anything to worry about; after all it is hot out. 

At the barn you unsaddle him, check his temperature and pulse. His temperature is high and so is his pulse. Call the Vet, your horse may have heat stress. 

Heat Stress- this can also be called heat exhaustion and heat stroke. It's brought on by hot, humid weather, over exertion, excess loss of body fluids and poor ventilation. If you don't get your horse cooled down, his blood vessels will dilate with the result being circulatory collapse, shock, or even death. 

You need to re-hydrate your horse and bring his body temperature back to normal. You can do this by taking buckets of water and washing him down, taking a hose and gently spraying him off, or putting ice packs on his head and legs. You need to remove the sweat from the horse's coat, by combing him and keep replacing with cold water. This will gradually cool the horse off. You have to do all of this immediately or the horse will die. If the horse has a severe case of heat stress he may need an IV, which will replace the fluids he lost through sweat and respiration. Once the horse's body temperature has gotten below one hundred and two degrees you should stop full body baths, and limit the amount of water sprayed on this horse. This could result in shock, you want your horse to be cool, but not to cold. Keep a close watch on the horse; because once the horse has experienced heat stress, he may be more susceptible to it. There are ways you can prevent heat stress and they're listed below…