Performance issues in hot weather

[Mareish]

My horse has become very different to ride in the hot summer weather we’ve been having. He’s currently excessively sluggish and sulky when he’s usually pretty happy to work and even moderately forward-thinking. He’s fit and in good health. He sweats well — perhaps too well? He sweats even from a relatively short ride at the walk and is generally dripping after a longer ride. He gets electrolytes daily in the hot weather. He’s inside under a fan during the day except when being ridden and turned out overnight.

I’m talking about 85+ degree (F) weather, but we’ve had a hot summer so that’s been most days. While I can ride during cooler times of day in a lot of cases, I can’t control show times so I’m looking for anything else I can try. I’m confident it’s correlated to the high temperatures and it’s not the first year I’ve noticed it - though is more pronounced this year, perhaps due to the extra hot summer.

I was thinking of trying the following: do a CBC to check for anything unusual like anemia, try a different brand of electrolytes and increase dose, try another energy/muscle support supplement. Any other ideas other than avoiding hot summer shows?

TIA!

[Pico_Banana]

I saw a headline recently that suggested too many electrolytes can actually deplete potassium and lead to issues. I didn’t have time to read the article, but maybe something to google?

[sascha]

Thoroughly hosing the horse off with cold water directly before tacking up can help immensely.

Check lung function. Mine got exceptionally depressed and unhappy to work (normally a go getter) when her lungs got particularly useless.

[trubandloki]

Doing a full physical exam with blood work and such is never a bad idea, glad you are going to try that route.

In my opinion, no one wants to work in the high heat and humidity. I know I do not last near as long on the hot days as I do on a cool day. Why should your horse be any different?

[GraceLikeRain]

Mine is the same way. We just modify time of day for work. Weve yet to discover a physical underlying issue. She just doesn’t enjoy working in the heat.

Some people can go for a run when it’s 90 and some can’t.

[Bonnie2]

I’m sluggish and sulky too! Agree with above posts that heat tolerance is very individual. Most thoroughbreds are good in the heat, many warmbloods are not. Curiously, my chubby cobby oversize Connemara is fresh as a daisy. It’s not just body type, it’s physiology. Bloodwork never hurts. While the vet is out, a physical exam could rule out respiratory and heart issues. Shade breaks and washing down helps. I was astounded at a recent dressage show when zero attempt was made to cool the horses. Not in the warm up, not before the ride, not after the ride. The horses just stood there panting and dripping after the FEI classes. A couple retired in the ring because the horses just couldn’t perform. Heat stress is real! All you can do is try to keep their body temperature down. Good luck!

[Amberley]

We don’t show if it’s over 90. Maybe if it was the Olympics but otherwise no, enough. It’s not worth it, no one is having fun and some horses and people can and do get ill from the heat.

[beowulf]

This summer has been brutal on a lot of livestock in my area; many farmers in my network are reporting record-high livestock loss contributed to a combination of excessive prolonged heat & humidity. It may be you are dealing with the culminative stress of repeatedly having to deal with 85F+ weather. That takes a lot out of a horse on its own merit, but the heat and humidity also come with awful bugs. The flies have been horrible this year and I can tell a couple of horses in my herd are just exhausted from fending them off - one of them is wearing a flysheet almost 24/7, even though it’s usually my mantra to not turn out with them.

It’s not a bad idea to get a vet out - it might be worth making sure his lungs and heart are clear. Both would contribute to energy loss and general performance decrease. Are you absolutely certain the horse is sound and feeling his best? I only ask because you mention “sulky” – I have two horses who don’t handle the heat well, but neither get sulky about work, they just don’t have any pizazz. So when it’s 90F, I keep it under 20m if I ride at all, and it’s usually hacks.

[clanter]

part of the reason we stall our horses is to monitor their water intake, any odd behavior is met with a pulse check, respiration count and temp check. We keep various electrolytes ready to use however have found one that none refuses.

For the most part our horses are given the heat of the summer off, that is unless they need to qualify for some nationals class but we attempt to get those qualification classes out of the way early.

We use our horses in multiple disciplines but have found that they do not forget a thing picking up where they were.

[Equibrit]

maybe your horse’s level of fitness needs re-examining.

[fivestrideline]

Yeah, Real Feel temp here has been upper 90s-100+ for ages. It just “cooled off” to low 90s during the day, and 70s at night. It’s brutal with the humidity. All that adds up - heat stress and intolerance are cumulative.

Things that I do to help: spray them off and park in front of fans once a day at least, even if not riding. 50/50 alcohol and water spray. Hosing off before a ride, with regular spraying/sponging off during the ride. We’ve also kept a cooler of water at the ring with towels in them to lay over the neck between exercises. Riding only when there’s shade, even if that means trails or paddock hacks only.

As far as showing - I’ve shown with the real feel at 107. Before anyone freaks out: when we did summer shows like this there were several requirements from the venue otherwise we wouldn’t go:

• horses accustomed to working in the heat, and tolerating it well at home.
• covered arena classes after 10am. The show I remember would start all 3 rings at 6am, and after 10am everything went in the covered until the evening. They had it down to a science, and the gate guards had teeth. No one was holding up those rings!
• misters and fans at the gates. There were enough that a rotation of horses could stand there, everyone who wasn’t on deck was kicked out to the shade somewhere.
• management that proved they’d kick people out of they were riding an exhausted or overheated horse, doing too many classes (had a cap), or not providing appropriate water/fans/cooling for the horses at the barn.

[JB]

How old is he, and what breed/breeding?

How long have you had him, and in that area?

[BrownDerby]

I did a small benefit dressage show and they had a mister set up just before you entered the ring. It was very effective and gave you a quick refresh as you exited. Definitely welcomed in our low humidity area.

[NaturallyHappy]

I’m wondering about PPID and a slightly heavier coat…. Can you do a body clip? Mine needs clipped at least twice in the summer. I f do not clip legs and feather the line so one can’t distinguish between clipped and unclipped.
Can you talk to your vet about PPID?

[4horses]

I would probably focus on lowering his body temperature. He doesn’t want to work because he feels bad when it is this hot outside. I don’t blame him for that. Even my own horses have a hard time in this heat. One ride I had to cut short as my mare’s respiration rate was really heavy even though she wasn’t sweating that much. I think it was the high humidity making it harder to breathe.

My approach with a horse like this. Cold hose before the warmup. After warm-up, stop and cold hose again so when he goes into a class he is feeling refreshed.

If you are feeding hay, go ahead and either cut back or add some soaked pellets. I’ve had horses colic off of hay due to the extreme heat and now you are adding exercise and sweat loss to that. Horses on pasture seem to do fine, but if you are feeding hay any sort of dehydration can increase the risk of colic.

If you haven’t taught your horse to drink water to get to the rest of their grain in the bottom of the bucket, that is something to encourage. Some horses resent the extra water and will try to dump their bucket so you have to start slowly and work up. When I feed grain, I give about 1 lb of grain and one 5 quart bucket of water dumped on top.

[joiedevie99]

What if you replace two training rides with some really focused conditioning - like an hour of walking over rolling hills during a cooler time of the day? Sometimes they just need to be more fit to work comfortably.

[Critter]

My gelding’s only symptom of Cushings was exercise intolerance. I’ve had him a long time, and he’s in a regular work program, and he just suddenly was sluggish and not feeling as fit. Had to do the stim test for it to show up. He’s now on a low dose of Prascend and much better.

[ladipus]

I haven’t ridden much at all this past month due to it being 90+degrees with feel like temps in the 100’s here in Pennsylvania…my Friesian struggles the most with heat intolerance and also doesn’t sweat very well which doesn’t help …my Tb who has Cushings is very sluggish and just prefers to stand in front of his fan or else he’ll be sweating and my wb with asthma also not much pep to her step either…im chalking it up to the high heat and humidity and just backing off riding for the time being

[JB]

Friesians are notorious for heat intolerance, which can make it really hard to get them fit enough when it’s warm enough.

[sara78]

I ride if i need to prépare for a show at 5 am and hose them during thé day. I had one intolérant to high températures and did not ride him when i knew the day would be hot.