How to Ruin Your Horse’s Summer

Some days you just gotta go for it...

Well, if you’re like me, you’ve been spending the last few weeks in a slightly blurred haze of sweat, sunburn, and over heating every day. If you’re really like me, you’ve managed to give yourself a little bit of heat stroke a few times already, and it’s totally doing wonders for your brain cells. However, how is your horse handling the rising temperatures? We’ve already discussed the different ways in which you can successfully fail at summer, but how is it possible for you to make your horse hate the summer months just as much as you do?

Horses, just like people, are greatly affected by the changing temperatures. In fact, since they are doing the vast majority of actual exercise, they probably hate the 1pm blazing sun ride more than you. Over heating can completely ruin your horse’s summer, and make him feel really gross and sick. It can result in dehydration, lethargy and general malaise. Severe heat stress may even result in diarrhea and even colic. Sounds like your horse could feel just like you do at the end of a day riding 10 horses in a row! To help you with this, here are my top eight tips on getting your horse to really resent you this summer.

 

Top Eight Ways To Ruin Your Horse’s Summer

  • ALWAYS turn your horse out during the hottest part of the day. He/She probably would like to be in the stall when it’s nice and cool out, so he can nap inside. Also, horses love it when they are harassed by flies all day! The think of it like a sauna, in a healthy way.
  • If you get to turn them out in the sun, for goodness sakes be sure there is no shade. Yuck! Trees get in the way of grass growing, and we all know where your horse’s priorities lie with that one. Run-in sheds are also really expensive, so there is no need for that.
  • In the barn, keep the air nice and stagnant. Fans just blow dust all over the place, and electricity costs money. Plus, when you have all the fans on full blast, you can’t hear your music or your friend one stall over when you are having a very, very important conversation!
  • Ever heard that you can lead horses to water but you sure as heck can’t make them drink? Then why bother leading them to water at all! If they won’t drink, there isn’t any point. Just leave the same old water out in the field, preferably in the sun so they can have a nice steamy tea of dirt and bugs.
  • Electrolytes are OK. Not great, just OK. I mean, it’s just salt and vitamins and stuff, so if your horse really needs that, he will just lick his salt block or eat some dirt. They’re always eating dirt anyway, so why waste your money on electrolytes?
  • Most importantly, continue to work your horse during the middle of the day. 12-1pm is the ideal time, because the sun will be directly overhead, and you can work on your tan lines. We’ve already talked about how important those are, and you sure wouldn’t want to get uneven ones because the sun is on one side! Besides, it’s not like the horse cares that it is at least 10 degrees hotter at that time of day. He’s a horse. What does he know?
  • Have you got a white horse, or a regular horse with a big old blaze down his nose? Don’t worry about sunburn, that’s just for people! You shouldn’t use sunscreen (because of the aforementioned incredibly important tanning happening), so why should your horse?
  • That old pony you’ve got around the barn (everyone has one) who has Cushings probably won’t care that her hair is in winter mode and it’s 95 degrees out. Old horses, just like old people, get cold easily. Plus, there is nothing grosser than clipping in the summer time, can you imagine all the places that hair will stick to on your sweaty body? No thanks!

*Please note that these are all in jest, and do not by any means follow any of the suggestions above. In fact, do the exact opposite. Seriously*

 

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