6 Tips to keep your horse cool

With these temperatures, horses can suffer from heat stress. When the temperature rises above 25 degrees, it is too hot for a horse. How bad the heat stress is, depends on various factors such as duration, humidity and temperature. To make it as pleasant as possible for horses these days, we have 6 tips on how you can help:

1. A horse sweats more in high temperatures. Because of this, horses lose important electrolytes. It is important to replenish them. This can be done easily with the Horse Electrolytes Pellets or Horse Electrolytes Gel Injector for a quick boost.

2. Provide sufficient shaded areas in the pasture or choose a siesta pasture. By this we mean that the horses are stabled during the hottest part of the day and go outside when it is cooler.

3. Provide enough fresh water. At high temperatures, a horse may need up to 50 litres of water a day! Is your horse not drinking enough? Hang a  Himalaya liking stone on the ground to stimulate the need for water or give it water-rich feed such as wet feed. 

4. If the horse is stabled, make sure there is sufficient ventilation in the stable. 

5. On the road with the trailer? Then avoid standing still for too long with the trailer. When the trailer is moving, there is still ventilation in the trailer, but when you are standing still it is minimal and it quickly becomes too hot for the horse.

6. Horses with a pink nose can burn. This is because non-pigmented (pink) skin absorbs UV radiation faster than pigmented skin. Therefore, apply a high factor sunblock to these spots, such as  Equi Sunblock or Equi Sunblock Lotion. This quickly absorbs into the skin and does not stick.

Should a horse get very hot, it is wise to rinse the horse for 30 seconds with cold water. Then walk the horse by the hand for 30 seconds and keep repeating this until the horse says it has had enough.