Heat Stress: Know the Signs and How to Help Sultry summer weather can be hard on your horse. Here’s how to help him keep his cool. Summer’s sultry weather can be more than uncomfortable for your horse or pony; it can be dangerous. It’s important to know the symptoms of heat stress and how to respond to them.
Things to Consider Horses that don’t sweat enough or who are engaged in a lot of physical exertion—like three-day eventers, polo ponies, or horses in sports that involve a fair amount of galloping—are most obviously at risk of overheating in hot, humid conditions, says Dr. Laura Werner, a surgeon at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Ky. Werner specializes in equine emergency services and also has worked as a Fédération Equestre Internationale Veterinary Delegate at three-day eventing competitions in the United States. But your horse or pony doesn’t have to be an Olympic-level competitor to be at risk in summer conditions, Werner notes. “Horses can get overheated if both heat and humidity are high, and with the physical exertion that we ask them to do, that can happen pretty easily, just as it does with people,” said Werner. “Certainly, if the heat is in the high 80s and the humidity is about the same, it’s pretty easy for horses to get overheated quickly.”
14 Golf Tips
