I work weekends, hoping things don’t get worse again here this weekend.
I’ll bring a mask, in case.
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Unless people are being saved, no one (smoker or not, regardless of age) should have to work under those conditions. That makes me so angry!
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Yes @Libby2563 we are super dry here, too. My pastures are dry and shriveled- hoping for rain or else I will need to start feeding hay in the field soon.
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I’m on Mars…oh wait that’s Connecticut. We’ve noticed the horses at our barn have all been standing very still and not moving around much. Many usually play and horse around quite a bit, but they all seem to know the quieter is better right now. They seem very capable of taking care of themselves. We have one <50 day coming tomorrow morning where I might try to sneak in a walk around the farm. No real work though. It’s just not worth damaging their lungs or mine.
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We have always (mostly) given our horses the summers off, it is just too hot plus we normally have smoke from wildfires from as far always as Mexico blown in (along with dust from the Sahara Desert and west Texas) that just makes the air quality dismal at best. It is common to have heat index values above 120 here in the summers. It is rare for us to do anything much more than daily handling of the horses during the summer.
Never have any of the horses forgotten their jobs during the time off. There may be some time needed to bring them back from their vacation mindset but never has it been any big deal.
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My dearest dad gave us this crazy industrial hvac thing he had for his one dental office during Covid and text us to plug it in. I didn’t realize it until he did, that AQI in my area is currently 190 “Very Unhealthy”, with warnings through Thursday. I guess my area hasn’t had issues this bad for 20 years 
Thankfully I didn’t ride tonight; didn’t realize it until after I got back from the barn. Looks like he will get some down time/ground work as this moves its way through.
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Decided not to ride (or play fetch with the dog) due to air quality in the Chicago suburbs.
Everybody got a super thorough grooming with deep conditioning of tails and coats instead.
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It was pretty bad last night in south Chicago suburbs: 250+ around 6pm. When I took the dogs out for their nighttime potty, I could see haze around my garage lights. Not as bad this morning, but still over 200. Horses will be getting another day off. Tomorrow looks to be significantly better.
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I’m in your 'hood (NW IN) & thought it was foggy yesterday morning.
That wasn’t fog 
Nor is it today.
Horses are turned out, as per usual, but nobody will be ridden or driven today.
Drat!
This is the first halfway decent temp-wise week we’ve had in a while 
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I’m a smoker, and I could feel it. The air was (is) heavy and stinky.
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It was rainy last night and what I thought was foggy here…don’t think it was fog now. You didn’t notice the smell so much with the rain.
I’m a former smoker (quit well over 40yrs) & usually have no issues, but I find myself coughing 
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The smoke is moving this way again after a nice break from it. 
I rode both of my horses last night, but the smoke has moved in and it looks like the air will be too bad this evening. I’m in Southwestern NY trying to keep mine reasonably fit as friends and I are spending 3 days at Otter Creek at the beginning of August.
AQI is around 170 here again, ugh. I’m trying to decide what is healthier: keeping the horses in the barn under fans for a few extra hours, eating hay from chest-level feeders, or turning them out onto green pasture where they’d be grazing with heads down. I’m skeptical that fans make that big a difference when they’re just blowing smoky air around, but I don’t know. This is new to us in this area and it sucks.
I’d turn them out. As someone that deals with this on an annual basis we rarely do anything differently but when conditions are really rough we just turn them out. Your instincts are correct IMO.
I’m a smoker and I could feel it a few weeks back when it was bad in NYC and NJ. We got into the 400s, but I could feel it when it was far lower, around 200.
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This chart seems to indicate turnout is okay until 201.
I am in NYC (horse in NJ). This is really messing with my EIPH/asthma rehab. Smoke is back, just when I was seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Am at my wit’s end.
I skipped riding today as it was already over 150 by quite early.
Tomorrow is supposed to be marginally better.
Even if the AQI is over 300, I don’t see how most barns would be better. It’s not like a sealed up house with HVAC. Maybe if you have a climate controlled barn or something like an old bank barn that stays cool with the windows and doors shut. But most metal or wood barns aren’t that air tight. 
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I really don’t understand either. I would think being out eating fresh grass would be better than in the barn with possibly dustier hay. The air is still the same.
