Hot weather advice: how to cool a horse down quickly

During hot weather preventing our horses from overheating is a big concern and we need to adapt how we take care of them accordingly. Horses normally cool themselves by sweating the sweat evaporates from the skin surface causing a cooling effect. However sweating alone isnt always enough to bring their body temperature down quickly and temperatures can climb to dangerous levels causing heat exhaustion. This can lead to brain damage organ failure and other serious potentially fatal problems. We often associate hot horses with sweating alone but their breathing can indicate their temperature.

There is a misconception that when horses blow hard after exercise they are struggling to get enough oxygen but theyre not. By the time a racehorse pulls up from a race their blood oxygen will be back to normal levels says equine scientist Dr David Marlin. What drives their breathing is their temperature so blowing is an indication of high body temperature.
How to cool down a hot horse
The quickest way to cool horses is to continually pour cold water on them. Whether from a hose or a river or pond its about the volume of water you can get on them.
Horses that have just finished a race or crosscountry round or even dressage test can be very hot and regardless of the time of year you will see horses being cooled quite aggressively with water after racing says David. It is by far the most effective and quickest way of bringing a horses temperature back down to normal.
David explains that its not so much about the temperature of the water 1025C is fine you apply but more about the amount you put on.
Studies show that continuous application of water removes heat through conduction the direct movement of heat from the horse into the water. This happens due to the big difference in temperature between the horse surface temperature 40C or higher and the water he says. If the temperature of the water is the same as that of the horse it will only cool the horse by evaporation which takes much longer than conduction.
Dont scrape water off!
Most people have a sweat scraper in their grooming kit but it is actually useful when it comes to cooling down a hot horse? Its an ageold debate and no doubt youll hear it asked on the yard or discussed on social media again this summer too. Here is the answer scraping