TOO HOT TO HANDLE

With the hot weather here this summer, preventing our beloved ponies from overheating becomes a genuine concern, especially when we want to ride! Here we learn about the ways you can help your pony to manage the extreme temperatures at this time of year and still have fun.

Getting cool

Cooling is critical for our ponies as if the body temperature stays too high for too long, heat exhaustion can result. This can cause brain damage, organ failure, and other serious, possibly deadly problems in extreme cases.

Ponies normally cool themselves down by sweating, with sweat evaporating from the skin to create a cooling effect. Ponies also increase their rate of breathing to cool themselves down. These mechanisms are effective but quite slow, so having additional things that we can do to help them to lose heat is important.

Signs of high body temperature in a pony

• Sweating

• High breathing rate

• Ataxia (a wobbly gait)

• Feeling hot to the touch

• Being very excitable

• Being depressed or lethargic

• Being stressed

Helping to take out the heat after a ride

The quickest way to cool your pony down after a ride is to continually hose him with cold water. The more water you can get onto them, the better! You need to keep applying the cold water until you start seeing signs that your pony is returning to a normal temperature. The best way to tell if your pony’s temperature is back to normal is to see if his breathing has come down to a normal rate. Once your pony’s breathing rate has returned to normal, you can then let him dry naturally while hand grazing or hand walking before putting him back in his paddock or stable.

The other way to help your pony to cool down is to make sure he has water available to drink. Ponies will normally want to drink after they have finished exercising.

Top tips for cool ponies all summer!

Help your pony to keep comfortable in hot weather by doing the following:

• If you have brick stables with plenty of airflow, your pony may be better in the stable than out in the paddock when the weather is really hot. However, if you have wooden stables, these can get very warm, so ponies may be better to be out in the open, especially if you have shelters in the paddocks.

• Avoid riding at the hottest parts of the day.

• Provide clean water with no additives at all times. There is an increased risk of colic if water intake is reduced. If your pony doesn’t drink enough, chat to your vet or equine nutritionist about whether you need to add some salt to his food to encourage more drinking.

• If your pony is uncomfortable in the heat, hose them off and allow them to dry naturally. Don’t scrape the water off! You can do this three or four times a day.

Did you know?

Scraping water off your pony will not help to cool him down. Leave the water on your pony on hot days to help him get cool quickly and stay cool for longer.

Cooling myths busted

Cooling ponies with cold water does NOT:

• Cause muscle damage

• Cause laminitis

• Induce shock

• Give ponies heart attacks

• Prevent ponies from cooling by causing the blood vessels in the skin to constrict

It is NOT more effective to:

• Start at the feet and work up

• Focus on hosing the large blood vessels

• Scrape water off while cooling

• Cover the pony with wet towels