How do you all water out your horses after they race or work? The thinking and practices on this has changed over the years is why I’m asking. Thanks.
You let them drink, especially the ones that got Lasix.
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Usually there are buckets hanging in the shedrow, and they have the option to drink every time they pass it while they are being walked to cool out. Then, of course, they have water in their stall when they finally return.
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^^ This.
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It all changed with the studies that were done in preparation for the Atlanta Olympics.
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I can’t speak about the sport horse side of things. In racing, where old habits, customs die a long and slow death. The mindset of not letting a horse drink more than a couple of sips at time while cooling out or the horse will tie up. After a study was done in Australia in the early 90s? Saying that that there is no “harm” in letting a hot horse drink as much as it wanted.
As a kid and the designated slave hot walker I was always paranoid of letting a horse drink too much. I can still hear my mother’s voice, “get that horse’s head out of the bucket, you’re gonna kill him”, lol. Didn’t make much sense to me because I would watch horses galloping around the field lucidity-split on a very hot and humid summer day. Covered in sweat and blowing like a racehorse. Walk down to the creek dip their heads in and drink to their hearts content. Never saw one tie up and or die.
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It’s fascinating to ponder the changes in horsemanship and husbandry over the centuries, especially throughout the end of the 20th century and into the 21st century.
To think about how HARD horses worked in the past on literally just oats, hay, and water-- pulling carriages, plowing fields, etc. It’s not a surprise they had mineral and electrolyte imbalances to the point where a good, long drink after working hard could impact blood chemistry.
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OK, you all get it. Just as I expected.
I was just listening to a conversation of - only a few sips every 10 minutes and only sponging or washing them with lukewarm water after a race, even in heat like this.
They gave the reasoning of that is how we always did it and that is how the old timers do it. (So much for knowledge and practices ever advancing, eh?) Great . . . sigh. Thanks all.
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If you look at 100 year old advice for human athletes, they are also supposed to restrict water consumption. But these days everyone has a water bottle and hydrates constantly.
I believed the old school method as a kid in the 70s but as I had a necessarily slow walk down a suburban street to my barn, pony had always cooled down substantially and got to drink her fill on arrival at the barn.
Actually in practise this is still what happens as we don’t gallop back to the barn now either. But these days I want as much water consumption as possible so would certainly let her drink even if she was quite hot.
Vets are much better at necropsy these days and we know a lot more about causes of illness.
It’s also true that long slow cool outs are good for other reasons.
Btw what about the idea that a wet horse will boil in the sun if you don’t scrape scrape scrape?
For one, that’s not how evaporation works.
For another, if I don’t scrape right away at the washrack because I get busy with untangling a tail or rasping feet, in 5 minutes the water is all dripping offthe belly and there is nothing to scrape on the torso.
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In heat like this, there is usually a hose right by wire. Grooms usually bring a bucket and sponge with them and give the horse a quick sponging and sometimes even a drink from the bucket before walking back to the barns.
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I read that if you don’t scrape off a horse, the water stays under the hair and heats up.
Dont remember where I read that.
I know from personal experience with a soggy QH type in high humidity, that water can get quite hot from the horse’s body heat even with a cold water rinse. My MO with my mare is hose, scrape well and since the water has gone from cold to hot, rinse again, scrape well again, towel and hope you don’t have to do it again. If I’m lucky there’s a breeze outside and I’ll grass her to dry her out before being put away. YMMV but I always scrape and towel a horse when it’s stinking hot out.
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Water cools two ways, by conduction and by eveporation.
Cooling by conduction only works when the water temperature is lower than the horse’s body temperature.
After that the only cooling is by evaporation, but water can only evaporate quickly if the humidity is low.
If the humidity is high, the hot water doesn’t evaporate, and it just acts like a hot blanket.
Some people scrape WAY too much. but you do not want to leave a horse sitting with a coat full of hot water in high humidity, for an extended time.
For a personal analogy, consider the times you are working hard on a hot humid day, and the hot sweat just sits on your brow, not evaporating. You need to wipe it off so that you can cool off.
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This is the error - in bold. Water is a conductor, as correctly stated earlier in the post. A conductor cannot insulate. Water will NOT trap heat in the horse or cause the horse to heat up.
If you’ve worked your horse to the point that he is dangerously hot on a hot and humid day, you need to keep the cold hose running on him until he cools down. If it’s so hot and humid there is little evaporation going on, scrape him and if he starts sweating again, hose him off again.
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Water is not conductive of electricity. Common misconception. It’s the ions dissolved in it that actually conduct the electricity. It has relatively low conductivity of heat and energy in general, hence why it takes longer for the water in the pot to heat up than the pot itself.
Water is an insulator. It’s presence on earth is part of the reason for the stability of our climate.
Although I do agree you need to hose a hot horse with cool water, scrape, and repeat if necessary.
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Good grief. “Pure” water is not the same as “plain” water and “plain” water is an excellent conductor. You must have an exemplary purifier on your barn hose.
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“Plain” water out of a hose does not conduct thermal energy. The ions dissolved in it actually increase the amount of energy it can absorb.
When you say, “water is a conductor,” it doesn’t matter if you are talking about hosing horses or chemistry. The statement is not correct. Maybe you meant a different word?
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Endurance riders have for years let their hot horses drink while in a race, and then continued on their way. In a sport where final condition is judged. And I wouldn’t be surprised if a little wading up to the knees happened. You just don’t want wet chafing tack.
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An article that says pretty much what has been posted above.
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You know GT, I just got that Paulick Report in my e-mails, and I thought of you when I saw that. Then I figured you would, so kindly, probably post it - being the diligent horseman and most helpful person. Logged in and there it was. 
Big thanks.
