Cooling off a hot horse

By Jennifer Kunz, AnimalForum.com staff

An overheated horse is an unhappy horse. He needs to be cooled down quickly to avoid medical complications. Follow these steps to help him:

• Move him to a shady spot.
• Take his temperature, heart rate and respiration rate.
• Compare all three rates to his usual ones and call your vet is they are abnormally high.
• Set up fans at a safe distance from the horse if you have them available.
• Use ice packs or ice water on his legs.
• Hose cold water on his belly and underside.
• Hose cool to tepid water over his back.
• Never pour or hose very cold water over large hot muscles or his back.
• Scrape the water off with a sweat scraper as you go.
• Offer the horse a few sips of tepid water.
• Take his temperature again in 10 minutes. If it isn't dropping, call the vet immediately.