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  Discussion on Extreme Hot weather
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New Member:
gehdi

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 7, 2010 - 2:04 pm:

I'm looking for some management advice for my horses during the current heat wave with temperatures in the high 90's to low 100's.....

I'm from Central PA and this is not a routine situation hee.... I have two high powered fans running all the time and keep plenty of fresh water available and hose them done when I can ... usually early evening.... They seem to be normal except for heavy perspiration...
Member:
canter

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 7, 2010 - 4:24 pm:

Sounds like you are doing everything you can. One thing you need to do, if you aren't already: make sure that you scrape the water off when hosing them down. With the high levels of humidity we are all experienceing along with the heat, it takes longer for the evaporation process and thus the horses can't cool down well. The excess water can actually cause the horse to heat up more.

We've been throwing the horses chunks of watermelon to encourage a little bit more water intake - they seem to really enjoy it.
Member:
hpyhaulr

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 7, 2010 - 6:22 pm:

LOL We are in SC... it is not uncommon here to be in the 90s at midnight through July/August. We too have the fans going and keep them in during the day. I just got this post when I came in from the 'patch". A few months ago, I threw a bunch of seedlings in the oldest end of the manure pile 'out back'. Thanks to my horses I now have tomatoes, zucchini, squash, eggplant. So I figured I should give them their own supply of cantaloupe and watermelon. TIP... watermelon like sandy soil... but don't do all that bad in manure. My 'kids' LOVE them!!!!! Don't save enough in veggies to compensate for the safe choice and hay bills, but what the hay....I like the 'full circle' thing. Friends of ours were horrified when I tild them where I had planted! LOL like that makes a difference??? We also spread manure in the 40 acre soy field behind us. You can see the difference in where we spread and where we don't. Now I will take yesterday's refrigerated cantaloupe to them in the barn. It's 102 right now.Refreshing 'pick me up' electrolytes in the water buckets... broken up carrots and cut up apples in the pasture troughs in the morning. Some of them DO bob for apples. My new OTTB loves the water hose right in his mouth! He will flap his gums when he sees me with the hose til I shoot it in his mouth.
Fran thanks for the reminder about scraping the water off... I had been neglecting that.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 7, 2010 - 7:38 pm:

Hello Ron,
Check out HorseAdvice.com » Horse Care » Routine Horse Care » Summertime, Caring for Your Horse in the Heat it has a lot of information on this very subject.
DrO
New Member:
gehdi

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 7, 2010 - 9:22 pm:

Hey, Thank you all for the info... .... I also neglected to scrape the water off... I'll be more mindful of that.... I never thought of feeding the horses watermelon or cantaloupe.... will have to give that a try.... wonder what else they can have????
Thanks Doc for the reference.... I'm headed there next.... this is a great service for us horse folk.... your time and effort is much appreciated... Keep Cool...
Member:
frances

Posted on Thursday, Jul 8, 2010 - 7:16 am:

What about cucumbers - does anyone know if it's safe for horses to eat them?

I have tons of cucumbers growing in my well-horse-manured-vegetable patch, and I thought they might be a good treat for a horse that needs a low-sugar diet (don't give melon any more).
Member:
canter

Posted on Thursday, Jul 8, 2010 - 7:24 am:

Hmmm...never thought of feeding cucumbers, LL. I wonder if they would be as appealing as melons since they are not nearly as sweet? If the horses do like them, they definitely would be a good treat for the horse watching it's waist-line!
Member:
nightwin

Posted on Thursday, Jul 8, 2010 - 7:28 am:

I own a boarding barn (35 horses) in SE VA and we regularly deal with the high temps and humidity. Our philosophy is that horses belong outside, regardless of the weather, for all the obvious reasons. To that end every horse has unlimited access to shelter and shade. We give them loose table salt with their breakfast whenever the temp's above 90, and make certain their water is clean and plentiful. We carefully monitor our horses when temps are high, ie walk out to them even while they're grazing on grass, to check their respiratory rate, sweating, etc. If a horse looks really uncomfortable (NOT sweating, not grazing, panting, nasal flaring) we bring them into the barn, give them a cooling shower, swipe excess off, put them under an overhead fan in a stall, and call the horse's owner. Since about half of the horses do not have a stall, we leave two stalls unrented to accommodate such situations. I encourage horse owners to come out to the barn in the afternoon to shower their horses, and the majority do so regularly.
We are fortunate in that we often have a breeze, which makes the heat tolerable. We rarely have to bring a horse in, with the exception of a rather obese mare.
This has worked well for us for the 7 years we have been boarding. Hope this helps.
Member:
scooter

Posted on Thursday, Jul 8, 2010 - 7:39 am:

I do like Wendy, the horses routine, feed, and grazing stays the same. By evening my horses are drenched with sweat, but as long as everything stays "normal" as far as vitals I don't do anything different. One thing I have found that seems to really help is braid their thick, long manes when it is really hot and humid, that seems to help keep them cool.
Member:
ajudson1

Posted on Thursday, Jul 8, 2010 - 9:37 am:

A couple of years ago I started routinely bringing my horses in mid afternoon. They get a cup of pellets, a scoop of SE & E, and in the summer, 2 T of loose regular salt. There is a bucket of loose salt and loose minerals available at all times.

When it's wet, those 2-4 hours gives them time to dry off. When it's hot & humid, they escape the flies, and the barn is cooler than outside. There are 2 stalls I can leave open and do at various times, but by bringing them in their own stalls I can do the feeding too.

We don't normally have a long spell of heat & humidity(this year isn't "normal") so for the most part they only get hosed off after a workout. If I see them sweating just standing around, then I will do the hosing and I have a wonderful little horse squeegee thingy that is plastic with a rubber strip. It's bow shaped and so much nicer than others I have found. And very inexpensive. $1.99 at horse.com

https://www.horse.com/item/pro-craft-squeegee-scraper-assorted/SLT772019/
Member:
cometrdr

Posted on Thursday, Jul 8, 2010 - 6:39 pm:

I hose my horses off as a treat mid day in the 90's they like that. I also hose them down and scrape off the excess just before riding in the evenings - I don't ride during the day when it is over 80 here. just too darned hot for me too. It;s not a problem riding a wet horse. plus it get the dried sweat off them and they feel more comfortable - I don;t ride them hard. so only new sweat is the saddle area and between the legs. I re hose that down to clean them up then re bug spray them. Any one ever heard of NOT being able to spray a wet horse with Bug spray??? and if so why?
Member:
canter

Posted on Thursday, Jul 8, 2010 - 6:55 pm:

Muffi, when I first started riding, someone told me not to bug spray a wet horse (the theory being that the bug spray would absorb into a wet horse's skin and cause a toxic reaction). I was horrified that I may have done harm to the school horses I had ridden in that first year, and to the new horse I had just purchased. So I checked in with my vet at the time. He basically laughed and told me not to worry about it. Since then, I, and everyone I know sprays when wet...and we haven't killed a horse yet!

That said, I'd be interested in DrO's response. I know my mare would be miserable as the bugs tend to really chew up her ankles. I have found her with blood specks all over them if the bug spray doesn't last until next application. When bugs are at their worst, I use the fly boots.
Member:
dsibley

Posted on Thursday, Jul 8, 2010 - 8:54 pm:

OK, you are all going to think I'm off my rocker. I started using something this year that deters those nasty green-head flies...and hopefully the '747' black horseflies. I hung up a gallon Zip-lock bag filled halfway with water, and five or six pennies. I have one hanging from the cross beam on every outdoor run and in the middle of every barn door. Although it doesn't do anything with the stable flies (I use fly predators for those), it keeps the horse flies off my ponies. This year with the high heat and humidity, every little trick helps.
Member:
canter

Posted on Friday, Jul 9, 2010 - 7:23 am:

That's a new one on me, dieliz. What's the theory behind it? I would imagine it would have something to do with the water reacting to the copper in the pennies?
Member:
ajudson1

Posted on Friday, Jul 9, 2010 - 9:48 am:

Is there still really copper in pennies?! Are you sure they aren't some new kind of plastic nowadays? LOL!

I've read that some place, but I don't know why they are attracted to it either.

Now about all those mosquitoes that have come to life after 2 very dry summers...
Member:
annes

Posted on Friday, Jul 9, 2010 - 11:08 am:

I read about the water & pennies in the ziplock bag too and my husband says it works in the garage where black flies bothered him. He used a sandwich size ziplock bag. You have to hang it in a window or doorway so the light will shine through the bag. Our understanding of this was the reflection of the pennies through the water looks like a predator to the flies and they stay away. I have one hanging in my tackroom which seems to work but have been too lazy to climb up in the high doorways to attach...I should do that this weekend. Anything to help with the pesky flies!!
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Jul 9, 2010 - 7:14 pm:

Fran, are you asking is it ok to hose off hot horses?
DrO
Member:
dsibley

Posted on Friday, Jul 9, 2010 - 11:00 pm:

The theories I read about the ziploc bags is that the refraction of light created by the water and the pennies reacts strangely on the multi-faceted eyes of the flies. Kind of makes it look like a huge disco ball, so they won't land where there is a lot of activity. Theory #2 is that the bags look too much like a hornet's nest so they stay away. Either way, it works. They don't attract the bugs (so OK to zip them shut), but deter them.
Sorry...do we need to move the bug discussion to another thread? Thought it had to do with hot weather.
Member:
canter

Posted on Saturday, Jul 10, 2010 - 10:22 am:

No, no, DrO, I was asking for confirmation on whether or not it is OK to apply fly spray to a wet horse. Muffi was wondering about it, and I had been told years ago that it's not OK by someone with more experience than me at that time.

My response to Muffy was that I believed it to be OK (based on asking a vet years ago), but wanted to double check with you.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Jul 11, 2010 - 8:47 am:

I got it...I too know of no reason you cannot apply bug spray to wet horses. Always read and follow the instructions on the product.
DrO
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