Help me to stop fretting about horse in heat at new barn

[RemarkableOwl21]

I moved my horse to a new barn about a month ago and I find myself worrying excessively about him, especially as the heat in our area is near record highs (105-107 F) for several weeks now and there is no end in site. Horse lives outside 24/7, but has access to shade and water, of course. I hose him down when I can, but not every day. I’ll be out of town next week and will pay for someone to bathe him a couple times for me. I know ways to cool down a horse, but what if you simply can’t get to the horse every day to help him cool?

The other issue I’m worrying about far too much is whether he’s doing OK going from being in a herd of 6 to being alone in a field. He is supposed to get a pasture-mate at the new barn at some point, but he is alone for at least a few more weeks. He can see other horses on the property. I’m also worried that when I’m out of town next week, he will be even more lonely.

I’m obviously going through a period of heightened anxiety. I’d love to hear from more experienced folks who can help put my mind at ease.

[2DogsFarm]

We had the same ungodly heat index all last week.
High 90s with “feels like” up to 108 & humid.
My 3 - senior horse & pony, mini - dealt with the weather better than expected.
I have them at home & feed 2X daily + late night check. Every time I was at the barn, they were fine. Not overly sweaty, but enough sweat so I wasn’t worried about anhydrosis.

I, OTOH,. was dripping sweat, soaked through tshirts, even my hair was sweaty!

They have free access to stalls, no shelter in pastures, but were more often out than in.
I did find all 3 sharing a stall at times.
No fans in any stall.
Water buckets in stalls stayed mostly full, 50gal barrel trough was drunk down more often.
My 2¢ says they’re smart enough to conserve energy & stay as cool as they can w/o my help.

If you do hose off, make sure you scrape off as much wet as possible.
If you don’t, what’s left quickly heats up, making the cooling effect much less.
What works better is making up a bucket if cool water with a good amount of liniment added.
Wintergreen alcohol is cheap & works great. Listerine or generic mouthwash adds some antiseptic quality.
Witch hazel is nice, but not do cheap.
Dip a big sponge, wring out & wipe down horse. Concentrate on veiny places: neck, chest, underbelly between flanks, legs - anyplace there’s more bone than flesh.

IIWM, while you’re gone, I’d skip having friend hose & just have them do the sponge/liniment swipe.

If he’s been fine seeing but not being with other horses, that shouldn’t change.

[RemarkableOwl21]

Thank you so much for responding! I really appreciate the words of wisdom.

[LCDR]

I have been in this situation, at one time with three horses to worry about.

If there is shade and water available, I would not worry unless there is an age or medical component involved. IMO a daily rinse probably makes the owner feel better than the horse. Sweat and latherin do the job of evaporative cooling the 23-1/2 hours every day when the horse is not being hosed.

[RhythmNCruise]

My guy has a history of anhydrosis when our heat index reaches triple digits (we have horrendous humidity here). Last week we had about three days in a row of those horrible days. Most of our days are in the 90’s anyway with pretty significant humidity (“air you can wear” LOL).

Anyway, this is his first summer at the new barn. In preparation for the dog days of summer, I bought a nice fan and the BM helped me install it in the stall (24/7 access to pasture from this stall). He also has a “porch” out front of the stall. There is a tree line along the back fence of the pasture that provides a little shade in the morning and evening.

I feed AM and PM, and I rarely discovered him in the stall with the fan. He was almost always out basking in the sun, grazing, sweating (thankfully). I’d hose the sweat off in the evenings before PM feed and he was good until the next evening. From the looks of the stall, if it was used, it wasn’t for extensive periods. He’s out with a mare and they frequently get in the stall together (there are two stalls, but they’re joined at the hip). No poop. No pee. Bedding only lightly disturbed.

So, if your guy doesn’t have anhydrosis, I really wouldn’t worry. He’ll do what he needs to do. As long as they have access to shade, that’s about all we can do. Horses do what horses do. I think they’re usually driven in more by bugs than heat, honestly.

Now, mine will run for cover if it rains too, which I always think is silly on these roasting hot days. I stand in the rain and enjoy cooling off, meanwhile he’s hiding in his stall like he’ll melt. Goober.

[Montanas_Girl]

@2DogsFarm

If you do hose off, make sure you scrape off as much wet as possible.
If you don’t, what’s left quickly heats up, making the cooling effect much less.

This isn’t true. Leaving the water on the horse prolongs the cooling effect via evaporation. More equine cooling information from the world’s leading expert in equine thermoregulation: https://drdavidmarlin.com/horses-heat-sweating-cold-water-cooling-scraping/#:~:text=A%20wet%20horse%20will%20actually,on%20to%20cool%20by%20conduction.

[2DogsFarm]

More Old-time “knowledge” bites the dust.
Thanks for the updated info

[LCDR]

Yes, I just learned last week from my trainer that cooling down a hot horse was best efficiently accomplished with continuous cool water (26C or 78F) and no scraping. And that continuous spraying with cool water over as large a surface area as possible, like a human whole body shower, was better than moving the spray around from area to area.

Which was good news for me since my well water comes out of the ground at 61F regardless of the season, so there is no way that I can use cold water, defined as 50F.

Now I just need to equip my wash stall with multiple showerheads.

[candyappy]

I have 3 here at home and honestly they did better than I did! Shade and water available if they wanted it but they were out grazing all the time. My daughters mare and my mare ( 21 & 18) were a little sweaty but they are both appaloosas and mostly while so the sun bounces off? they were fine.

My gelding ( 5) is a Dun and he was sweaty top to bottom but fine otherwise. I did wet him down if I happened to work him early morning but when it was 80+ at 9am with high humidity I did not work him( obviously).

I otoh was drenched in sweat just walking out to check on how everyone was doing , not to mention chores…

As long as they can sweat and they are not breathing heavy at rest I would let them decide where they want to be.

[LCDR]

Yep, most horses are quite good at handling the weather.

[RemarkableOwl21]

Thank you all so much for the reassurances. They have really helped ease my worries.