Keeping Your Horse From Overheating In Summer....

If you are hot on a summer day of riding, you can be sure to know that your horse is much hotter than you are, making it susceptible to possible colic, and heatstroke... AND, muscle waste.... Due to the horse's internal temperature, and its concentrated salts it loses to perspiration, it can rapidly suffer from electrolyte depletion.  To cool your horse, you should run cool water over his body, and scrape it off, to prevent the water from becoming trapped in his hair, and becoming warm water.  After scraping the water off, follow again with more cool water, and again, scraping the water off.  This will cool horses, in about 10 minutes of water dousing, and scraping, to a less dangerous temperature.  Also, in proportion, to the size of your horse, learn to make an electrolyte solution, starting with small amounts at first, before your horse is really requiring emergency treatment, that he can learn to like the taste, and this can be given to replace his lost fluids, after a hot, dusty ride.  Horses that sweat, if washed off in one spot, lose so much salt, that you can see the white on the ground after it dries.  Just imagine how this can affect the muscles...not only of the horse's legs, but his internal organs like the heart, lungs and liver, and kidneys.  Serious stuff.... protect your horse.... just as you should stay hydrated in hot weather, so should you keep your horse hydrated.