This message is from: "Mary Ofjord" <ma...@boreal.org>
Good question Laurie - here in northern Minnesota, we are not use to these
kinds of temps. I don't know how the folks down south handle the hot humid
summers. Right now, a good 20 degree day seems like heaven!
I printed an article from Jessica Jahiel's Horse Sense Newsletter of
Holistic Horsemanship for myself and my students on the subject of heat and
humidity.
http://www.horse-sense.org/archives/20011216115820.php
In the article she mentions the heat index as a base to see whether your
horse is in danger of heat exhaustion. This morning the humidity was 97%
and the temp was 73, total that together and you get 170 as a heat index.
This is way too uncomfortable for me and the Fjords. Yesterday they spent
the day in our barn, cool and out of the heat and the bugs. We did not have
a fan going because the barn is situated to catch any breeze that comes
along. None of the horses were sweating, just standing in their stalls.
The quarter horses at our barn do better with the heat, as does our mule,
but I consider my horses to not be in shape, and if course, on the heavier
muscled side. So they can't dissipate the heat as well as an Arab can. I
have had one of our horses over heat and it was scary. We were on a trail
ride and had to walk home to get her cooled down using the water method.
One thing about using the water method to cool down your horses is that you
need to scrape the water off immediately or it acts as a "water blanket" and
instantly becomes hotter instead of cooler. So the rule is to hose,
starting with the legs, then the chest and underside of the neck, as these
contain major blood vessels just under the skin. So hose, scrape, hose,
scrape, hose, scrape until the horse's body becomes cool. Scraping off the
water is very important, don't think you can just leave it on the horse and
it will cool him down. Also mentioned is the use of rubbing alcohol, which
evaporates and cools.
We humans have other ways of keeping cool, however, by sitting in our small
trout stream under the canopy of leaves and trees, with something frosty and
cold to drink. Stay cool!
oz is on outside board, with trees, a shelter, a pond (ok, the rain has
created a swamp in one corner) and water. i worry about him when it gets
this hot, though i tend to think he's probably better off outside than
being confined in a stall.
is there anything anyone does or can suggest for keeping our fjordies
safe and healthy during this stuff. i can go over and hose him off and
let him stand in front of a fan for a while, but it only lasts so long,
and of course he rolls in the mud when he's turned out again.
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