Next week, our temperatures are going to shoot over 100* for five days in a row, potentially up to 110 . For context, my area averages ONE 100* day a year, so we are not accustomed to this type of heat at all. I already add white salt to my horse’s mash daily, which I will increase to 2 tbs/daily. My elderly gelding also gets electrolytes in his grain (TC Senior Gold). I’m also going to braid my younger gelding’s mane to help him stay cooler, and make sure they have cool/clean water. They have shelter to get out of the sun and their paddocks are thankfully shaded by trees in the afternoon/evening sun, but I am still worried. What else can I do to ensure that they are comfortable and healthy through this heat wave? Thanks in advance!
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Oh, boy.
I have a horse with Cushing’s who has trouble regulating temperature, so I worry about this all the damn time. In no particular order, here are some things I do:
~ Body clip.
~ Leave him outside if there’s shade and a breeze, or bring him in and put him into a stall with a fan if not.
~ Make sure he has access to cool water rather than just the big, sun-warmed trough outside.
~ Feed soaked cubes with every grain meal to ensure adequate hydration.
~ If he looks heat stressed, sponge/spray—>scrape and put in the shade with a fan.
~ I also braid manes, and make sure salt is readily available. Electrolytes couldn’t hurt either.
Good luck!
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If possible, hose the horses off with cool water. Multiple times a day would be best, but even once after work would be helpful. I would do it even if the temperature had started to drop.
This is particularly helpful if a horse has anhydrosis. One reason I think the hot, humid areas have high rates of horses not sweating is because the temperatures don’t consistently get low enough overnight and the horse’s system doesn’t get a break.
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When I’m really worried about heat stress, I have sponged my horse off with an alcohol/water mix. The alcohol evaporates more quickly than water so cools horse down more. It’s super humid where I live though. Maybe if you’re in a dry climate, plain water would be just as good. I like hosing my horses off after breakfast and / or early afternoon when I’m able to when it’s just regular hot. Especially if I can then stash the damp horse in the shade with a fan!
Fans are a huge relief if you’re able to set them up.
I’m paranoid about horses getting too hot and developing anhidrosis. If I was in your situation, I’d be feeding some kind of sweating supplement to my horses (even if they all currently sweat). Even if it was just dumping some beer on their food. I like the Platinum Refresh personally and anticipate slipping some to my normal sweating horse when the heat gets serious around here.
A dear friend of mine once set up one of those cheapy pop up pavilions over her water trough. She had the trough on the fence closest to her home and ran a drop cord to the trough and set up a fan there. She had an elderly non sweating horse. The horse was smart and stayed under that pavilion thing with the fan blowing on her. My friend ended up putting hay in there for the horse and it was like a temp stall lol. The pavilion thing didn’t survive very long (storms) but it lasted through a two week heat wave and provided much needed relief for the horse.
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Scraping is super important! Good catch!
I can just picture this - with the old horse in Ray Bans, and a paper parasol in her water bucket. It must’ve been adorable.
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OP, you probably don’t have electric in the shelter to where you could hook up a big fan?
If not, I agree with hosing you’re horse down and focusing on the chest, between the front legs/armpits, hooves.
Some horses love the shower nozzle held over their backs, others not so much. All of my geldings loved/love their nether areas sprayed.
I am down to two horses who have to be separated because one likes to mercilessly pick on the other one, which the other has health issues and won’t defend himself,
They both have white salt blocks next to their water stations and I add about a teaspoon of human sea salt to their feed pans.
They both eat a condensed vit/min supplement mixed into one cup of Timothy pellets.
This time of year, I finely chop watermelon rind & watermelon and add that to their feed pans. They each get one over full cup twice daily. Watermelon is 92? Percent water and helps cool them down; Imhad a lameness vet suggest the watermelon:. One horse is IR/Cushings and it has not had a negative affect on his insulin in the six summers I’ve been feeding it to him; he’s been in remission since 2015.
I am so thankful to have a small barn with electricity. That means I have big tub fans on industrial strength timers.
My IR/Cushings horse spends much of his day to escape heat/humidity and deer & horse flies in front of his 42” tub fan. Some mornings He is back in the barn before I get chores done.
On the really miserable days, they get showered down in the evening, put in their stalls, and fed supper with the fans blowing on them. I can set the timers to shit the fans off whenever:)
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It was cute. An old fashioned Trakhenner (sp?) mare, tall, big bones and gray. My friend was concerned the horse wouldn’t utilize it or accidentally knock it over. Those pavilions aren’t very tall or sturdy. But mare marched right on in and made herself at home. It wasn’t perfect of course, still a lot of early morning and late afternoon sun, but it was a lot better than nothing!
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Another idea if you have a hydrant or hose near your shelter…you can easily hang a mist system above the entrance. I’ve used one during heat waves and the horses will just stand underneath it all day. It feels a good 10-15 degrees cooler. Just an idea if a fan isn’t feasible! Lowe’s sells them…
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Shade is the key to surviving hot temperatures. You need to lock them in or prevent them from standing in the sun. My horses are locked in shady dry lots during the hot days of summer. Otherwise they graze in the sun and overheat.
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If your horse doesn’t suffer from any medical condition where the excessive heat will aggravate it, all you really need to do is provide shelter , fly spray and water. Yes they will be hot, they will sweat but so do we.
I don’t do anything special except to not ride ( or ride early in the morning). My horses have never had any problem with it.
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Many individuals add electrolytes into their diet. Access to fresh water and making sure water buckets are full, but also clean, becomes increasingly important. Provide access to shade and fans if possible. I would also check on the horse more often, if possible, to monitor them.
with a mister is an added plus. Our horses just enjoy the days in their stalls under their fans then are turned out at night
Fly spraying them helps reduce their annoyance with the conditions
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That has been my experience too. Where I am we get a handful of 47C/116F days during summer. It has never bothered any horse I have owned, as long as there is plenty of good, dense shade and fresh water. I have found my WB gelding out napping in the hot sand pit during the middle of the day in 47C temperatures, when he could have been standing in the shade. Honestly, he couldn’t have chosen a hotter place to nap if he tried. He wasn’t sweating and seemed pretty content.
Even my 30 year old mare handled the heat pretty well.
I’ve only ever found them with a little bit of sweat behind the ears and perhaps a little around the girth groove, despite the fact that they would frequently get pretty sweating when running around.
I’m sure it probably depends on the kind of heat, but where I am it is dry heat and it just doesn’t seem to bother them as long as they can get into the shade when they need to. They certainly don’t stand around in the shade all day (like I would need to) - they go out and graze in the sun even though there is grass under heavy shade that they could be eating instead. They go out and graze for a while, then have a drink and stand in the shade for an hour or so and then go back out to graze again.
(edited to add that I keep my horses in large open paddocks of anywhere between 5-30 acres, so there is usually still some kind of breeze happening and it is cooler under trees than in a run-in shed).
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Just adding no need to braid manes unless you are finding horse sweaty on the neck beneath the mane.
My mini has a really thick mane & we just got through a string of 90F+ days with matching humidity.
None of my horses ever showed signs of being overheated, and mini’s neck was always dry beneath that heavy mane.
I have to think it shaded his neck rather than trapping heat.
My pastures have zero shade, but horses have access to stalls that are shaded from mid-afternoon sun.
They spent most of the day out grazing, but (as evidenced by piles in the stalls & shifted bedding) did come in to stand & nap.
They also preferred to drink from the white plastic 50gal barrel in front of the barn. I had to top that off 2X daily, while the buckets in the stalls got less use.
Horses 
I agree with many, horses will acclimate especially if you have a run-in or shade to get out of the sun. That is most important. We have fans in the run-in plugged in to a temp controller so they are only turned on over 85% here in NC. Super easy and it saves your electric bill.
Electrolytes that have a profile more that just NaCL. Quality water because they’ll be drinking a lot! Water buckets or tubs in direct sunlight can grow algae pretty quickly. Maybe hang three buckets that you can empty and refill daily?
Stay cool in that heat, both you and your horses!
Even when the heat catches us by surprise, the horses usually do fine.
Definitely make sure there’s water and shade. Ideally check on them a few times during the day.
Hosing and scraping can be a nice treat, and/or you may want to wash them after if they got salty streaks from sweat.
The time to really check on them in my area will be around 5 pm which is when the heat is really peaking and when the sun is very far north on a day so near the solstice. Sometimes on these very long days the places that normally have shade suddenly don’t have shade. Especially worry about horses in stalls, like north/northwest facing stalls might be really unexpectedly bad in ways that would not be apparent under any other conditions.
I like to have multiple water sources available so that 1 poopy bucket is not keeping an animal from drinking. Also consider that they’ll probably drink more than normal (and you kinda hope they do).
Also consider that with this epic heat wave that there is the possibility of power outages either planned or unplanned in the afternoon. If your water is on a well, you might not be able to refresh it, so that’s another reason to possibly cache extra buckets in the enclosure in the morning.
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Definitely be aware of extra water consumption during high heat. My horses will smash through 20 gallons apiece between 8 am and 6pm in their stalls if I keep them in.
Like with many health issues, most horses are fine. Until they aren’t. I think you’re wise to consider what can be done to increase your horses’ comfort
I have read all the responses with interest as the Portland/Vancouver area is expecting all time record highs over the next 3-5 days. Oh boy! As I live in the west end of the Gorge, those 108 degree days will come with stiff winds, too. When that happens, the fans in the stalls are fairly useless, but hosing and scraping does a bit of good to help cool everyone. I gave my cushings/IR gelding a trace clip last night to help him out as his coat was heavier than normal, though not “wooly cushings pony” like last year-- yay for Prascend!
Poltroon- good point about electricity going out-- most likely here from tree fall in the wind we expect, but I have ways of bringing water from local sources if our power goes. Being on a well with no generator is a sobering, get a plan in place, situation. Agree that late afternoon is the real critical time and my barn overhang where they stay out of the sun faces west, so that 6-8pm time is the hottest under it. Sigh. I hate hot weather so much more than cold!!
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