Cooling a hot horse

I wanted to kick this off with a post that has immediate relevance: cooling the hot horse.

For years there was a rumor rolling around that you could not give water to a hot horse - that it would cause the horse to colic. Luckily, the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta took a scientific look at this. They found that giving water to a hot horse will not cause it to colic. The water should be of moderate temperature (not have ice floating it - cool or room temperature is fine) and should be paired with other temperature-regulating strategies - shade, a fan, and wetting the large muscle groups.

Common sense cooling for an overheated horse: remove tack, move the horse to a shaded location, offer cool or room temperature water, and wet the large muscle groups - neck and chest, and haunches. You can sponge, hose, or use a bucket to pour water over the horse. Use a sweat scraper or your hand to push excess water off of the horse - large amounts of water will not cool the horse as effectively as a thin layer (which evaporates , creating the cooling.) Repeat as necessary.

I do have a related example of someone taking a good piece of information, and then randomly applying it to all conditions: a hundred-mile endurance rider once told me that you should NEVER put water over a horse's haunches. She stated that it would cause muscle cramping and hurt the horse. IF you are in the middle of a hundred-mile endurance ride, this piece of advice has some validity - extreme athletes need to "warm" the muscles before extreme efforts. In the middle of twelve hours of trotting/galloping down the trail, immediate and significant drop in muscle temperature could cause cramping if asked to perform at high effort again immediately.

However, this does not apply to the regular rider taking a ride of several hours. If your horse is overheating, cool them. A hot horse in moderate work can have water poured/sponged over the haunches. You can walk them out afterwards or continue on your ride. Just use common sense.