Know your horse, inside and out!

By Jennifer Kunz, AnimalForum.com staff

All of us enjoy the arrival of summer. No more snow and cold or trudging through the rain and mud of spring. Time to get out and ride! But don't forget about the heat and how it can affect you and your horse. It's important to know your horse well so abnormalities are easy to diagnose. His usual temperature, heart rate and respiration rate for example. These can be invaluable when trying to deal with heat stroke or exhaustion.

Normal rectal temperature for a horse is 99.6 to 100.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything over 104 degrees is generally considered unsafe. Take your horse's standing temperature once in a while and keep track of the results. Take a working temperature as well. Stop during workouts and take readings for several days at several different intensity levels. Keep all of the recordings together for comparison. This way you can establish a normal maximum for your horse.

Normal resting respiration rate for a horse is 8 to 20 breaths per minute. An exercising horse's rate will increase to 60 and may go as high as 140 depending on the intensity of the workout and the condition of the horse. Count the number of breaths your horse takes in 15 seconds and multiply by four. Know his average for resting and for your usual workout routine.

Normal resting heart rate for a horse is from 28 to 40 beats per minute. The heart can beat as much as 250 times per minute during intense exercise. Working rate varies with the condition of the horse. Here are some average guidelines:

• Walking: 80 beats per minute
• Trotting or cantering: 150 beats per minute
• Galloping: 200-250 beats per minute

An important clue to determining a horse's well being is how fast all three of these things drop when exercise has stopped. If respiration, heart rate or temperature haven't dropped significantly within 10 minutes after a workout, there may be a problem and assistance may be needed.