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As we all know summer brings more rodeos and long trips to those rodeos!

Summer also means heat! As most of us are getting ready to travel it’s good to keep in mind what we can do to make the summer easier on our equine partners!

The average temperature in Texas is 85-90 degrees with some places topping out over the 100s.

Water, water everything! Horses will drink at least 10-13th gallons in cooler weather, and in 95 degree weather they will drink up to 19-25 gallons of water daily. They need access to clean, cool drinking water. If your horses have an outside water tank you will need to be sure to keep it clean of algae, which is a group of predominantly aquatic, photosynthetic, and nucleus-bearing organisms that lack the true roots, stems, leaves, and specialized multicellular reproductive structures of plants. When exercising horses in hot weather, make sure you leisurely walk after any form of exercise get them cooled immediately, if it’s not taken care of it can cause a heat stroke. In that case you need to contact a veterinarian immediately.

Traveling in the summer with horses can be hard on horses. If possible try to travel in early morning hours or later in the evening when it’s cooler. When you stop for fuel, offer them water on the trailer in buckets, and hose them off if you have access to water. In your trailer put rubber mats on the floor and shavings on top of that then squirt them down with water to keep the heat from coming up through the floor from the road.

Some parts of the country are more wet than the others. The wetter parts of the country will have different types of bugs than the dry parts. Mosquitoes are most common in more wet climates. When buying fly sprays look for the one that will also repel mosquitos since they carry the West Nile virus which can be fatal in horses. After a rain shower make sure there is no rain water left in any tires, buckets, or barrels because that is the prime place for mosquitoes.

Sources https://www.platinumperformance.com/articles/top-ten-summer-health-tips.html