totally agree technical fabric shirts are great. I have any number of them from the hiking supply store. Great thing about them is you can hand rinse and hang, dry in a jiffy.
helmet was always the most ventilated I could find. I sweat buckets through my scalp
Well, I’ll tell you something I do which really works for me. I have longish hair, worn in a braid and pinned up with a clip.
I repeatedly go over to the hose, or a water tank, and completely drench my head. I turn it over upside down and let the hose run from my neck right off the top of my head. If a tank. I sink my whole head into it. I flip back up, lean back squeeze the extra water out, and continue on.
The trick is to keep the hose on it until your head has cooled off. You can tell by feeling with your fingers if its still hot against the scalp. Once its cooled off, you can come up for air, squeeze out, and the wet hair will keep you cool for another good hour, really.
If you are dunking in a tank, keep the top of your head under water until the heat coming off your head has cooled.
Feels reaaallllly good. Yum.
We don’t really like the heat and humidity, we just act like it’s not a problem to make the tourists feel miserable.
Make sure you stay hydrated, and the animals have plenty of water. You can fall flat on your face if you don’t watch your water intake.
This summer i’ve actually had to resort to gatorade in the water bottle. 
makes for wonderful stains when the horse fidgets and i spill it down my front.
I wish…we haven’t really had heat yet. It was 60 degrees today and rainy. Hot and sweaty sounds great right now 
I didn’t want to say, but I will anyway. I think we had a couple days in the 80’s. Other than that, its been 40, 50, 60, and 70’s. The 40’s and 50’s have been at night. Today its rainy and cold. I’m spring cleaning though, so I enjoy stepping out and cooling off. Pretty much outside like its airconditioned. Nice. Nice. Nice. I wouldn’t mind if this was the way it would be alllll summer long. Not a chance, I know, but, hey, I can dream. Meanwhile, I am totally enjoying this cool weather.
Mostly, I just complain about it. I’ve been in Virginia for almost 10 years, and I swear every summer is hotter and stickier than the one before. I do the tech shirts, but they don’t work without some sort of breeze. Cotton isn’t any better. Once it’s damp, if the air ain’t moving, you ain’t cooling off. Period.
I try to be done with the barn and riding by 11am, and not go back outside if I can at all avoid it until sundown.
[QUOTE=Calvincrowe;8207266]
What do you do with the frozen bottles–are they for drinking or so bun can lay beside them.[/QUOTE]
I don’t think anyone answered you about this… yes, it’s so the bunnies can lay against them, and I have seen them lick the condensation off as well. Have a few so that they can be rotated in and out so bunny always has a fresh, cool place.
I agree this humidity is miserable and I feel like I need to sprout gills. I don’t know how southerners live like this for a good chunk of the year!
[QUOTE=Ambitious Kate;8207625]
I didn’t want to say, but I will anyway. I think we had a couple days in the 80’s. Other than that, its been 40, 50, 60, and 70’s. The 40’s and 50’s have been at night. Today its rainy and cold. I’m spring cleaning though, so I enjoy stepping out and cooling off. Pretty much outside like its airconditioned. Nice. Nice. Nice. I wouldn’t mind if this was the way it would be alllll summer long. Not a chance, I know, but, hey, I can dream. Meanwhile, I am totally enjoying this cool weather.[/QUOTE]
Stick around! We’re entering an extreme solar minimum right now, which makes it likely we’ll be putting the shorts away on Labor Day and freezing our butts off by Halloween. Start splittin’ that firewood! 
Ride early morning late afternoon. Fans in all the stalls and not box fans. After a ride hose scrape,hose scrape etc. then put the horse in front of a fan. I’m currently running an experiment to see which 50 spf. shirt is cooler. Right now the Columbia omni freeze is the leader. Horses get electrolytes every day. I think the heat and humidity is easier for me. I ease into each year and become acclimated. And God Bless the wonderful farm where I board. They have a covers arena with 2 big Overhead Big Ass Fans and yes that is the brand
I’m in VA, so we understand that the high humidity is a killer. Lots of good advice here already, especially riding early. I try to be done in the barn with both rides by 8am, which means I’m getting on before 6. But it makes riding bearable on those really bad days.
two other suggestions: Frozen or very cold watermelon for your chickens. Cut it in half and they’ll devour it. Cucumbers work too. I give them the ones from my garden that got too big for pickling.
Other suggestion is to make sure you’re replacing electrolytes. I can’t do Gatorade (it makes me really sick to my stomach), but I’ve found Nuun electrolyte tablets and they’re wonderful. Not super sweet, and easily dissolve in water. I bring them to horse shows and alternate a bottle of regular water with a bottle of Nuun water.
Good luck and don’t try to be a hero. It takes our horses here in VA a few weeks to adapt once the really hot weather sets in, so yours will as well, but it’ll take time!
Georgia here… Hot, humid, gross. My horses are used to the heat by now (going on two years here) and so am I. I agree with the hosing, and the dunking your head in water. I try to find creeks when I trail and sponge off, which helps a lot. I do NATRC, so I have to ride to keep my ponies in shape. Competitions happen even if it’s ridiculously hot, so they need to be conditioned for it. I do half water half gatorade for myself.
it was up to 100F last week, 80%+ humidity, that’s Florida for you. I can’t ride early in the morning as I have to do barn chores, but I have relatively short hair and I hose my head down w/ cold water right before I put my helmet on and after I take it off, and occasionally throughout the day when I’m working too. It helps a lot. Of course cold water and gatorade is good. We bring the horses on daytime turnout in at 2 when its hot like this, fortunately my boy goes out at night and is in the barn under the fans and roof sprinkler during the day.
Lack of rain, however, is certainly not an issue :lol:
I bought one of these towels at the World Cup in April http://www.equicooldown.com/ and it has become my husband’s favorite. It is far superior to other, similar products I’ve purchased.
For a few years, I had one of those mister systems installed (with the skinny tubing and emitters), but the wasps and yellow jackets got a little too territorial about it, staking out claims, to the point where I considered it a hazard, so I took it down. I attended the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and loved the misting fans for the spectators!
CC - I’m right there with you! We’re heading into week 2 of showing up north of the border this week. Last year at this show we were in the midst of rainy, cold, wet system. This year the temps spent last week climbing into the 90s with the forecast of even more heat this week and it is MISERABLE! I’ve never wished for clouds so much before :lol:
Went out to take the horses out for morning walks today and the power had gone out in the barn overnight meaning that the fans didn’t turn on at feeding time. It was 10am and the horses were already sweating in the stalls.
Once the show gets going again I have 2 that go relatively early (9-10am ish) and those aren’t bad. But my daughter was in the ring around 3pm last week and I walk in on my big guy around 3-4pm and it’s awful!
I have also come to the realization that I am not built for this heat! We spent all that time trying to move to the SE and with how it’s been this week I realize that I never would have made it there…I’m way too much of a wimp!
[QUOTE=Calvincrowe;8207266]
To make it the show worse, I wear an eventing vest. My own personal sauna. Too bad it doesn’t actually promote weight loss.[/QUOTE]
You might want to look into these phase change vests. They have one for under armor that would probably be great under an eventing vest. I have the sport version and ride easily in it, but it’s waay too bulky to put under an eventing vest.
http://www.coolvest.com/cooling-vest-product-information/
They use inserts like ice packs, but instead of being at 32 degrees they are a gel that melts at 65 degrees, so they don’t cause you to “fight” the cold by trying to warm it up. They are 65 degrees for 2.5 hours. The vest weighs about 5 pounds. I have a health condition where heat just lays me out, and I’ve used my vest in 92 degrees and humid and been fine. You know it’s hot, but it doesn’t make you weak and sick feeling.
We wait for September.
You can also just use a wet washcloth under your helmet.
Remove all caffeinated food and beverages from your diet, and you will cool down a lot faster. The caffeine keeps the blood pressure elevated, which slows down body cooling. This was a tip several years ago on the board from someone who lives in Georgia. I tried it. It works.
Also, do the minimum you can do, early in the day, and then call it a day. Here’s the temperature + humidity equation you can use to figure out what you can do with your horse in the heat, and when to back off:
[I]The Heat Index is the sum of the temperature plus the humidity.[I]
[B]For example:if the temperature is 80 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity is 20%, then the Heat Index is 100 (80+20=100). If the Heat Index is less than 120, it is ok to ride. Start watching it as it rises above 120, at 150 your horse’s cooling system won’t work effectively. If it is greater than 180, your horse will be unable to thermo-regulate.
ETA: sorry for the blue links in the equation. They are not mine.[/B][/I][/I]
There is no way in hades I could give up my green tea!
Without my tea I’m basically like a two year old whose blankie is in the washer!
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