Modern ideas for an owld bat

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sidesaddlelady1

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Feb 25, 2005
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As some of you may be aware I have been riding for 50-odd years. As a girl I was always taught NEVER to put cold water on a horse under ANY circumstances unless for medical reasons (eg cold hosing, compresses, etc) To put it mildly it was considered to be a hanging offence.

I now see hot, sweaty horses being cooled down with ice cold water straight from the hose both in heat-waves and when there's snow on the ground, and fight long and acrimonious battles with the girl who hunts the Wonder Horse - she wants to hose him down and I want him "thatched" under a rug or rugged up with a "string vest" under a light rug. (I usually win this argument!)

Anyone have any opinions on this? (Silly question - I'll be swamped with opinions!)
 
Cold water

Well, I'm new to the horse keeping / owning game, but I certainly wouldn't like to hose Joe down when he's hot and sweaty after work with a cold hose pipe! (Wouldn't like it myself either after I've been exercising! :D ) (I'll prob get bombared with posts telling me I'm wrong in a minute!!!)
 
Sitting on the fence!

I too was told to walk a horse in a cooler if it was hot and sweaty. I do use this method and it always works (if a bit time consuming). But the Animal Health Trust did some research into the horses used in Atlanta and how to cool them efficiently, and they found in favour of cold water. Here's the link if you want to read the article:
http://www.aht.org.uk/sci_randd_physio_accli_flu.html
Anyway, since reading that report I have sometimes used a bucket of cool water and a sponge to wash down my horse if she is sweaty and she seems to enjoy it! I haven't got as far as using ice cold water though... :)
 
at my satbles we get a bucket of cold water and a sponge to get the sweat off the saddle patch, neck and where the bridle has been but that's usually only in summer and in winter we rub them down with a plastic curry comb. when we are on riding day courses though we sometimes get to bath the horses (only in summer) and we use the hose. i don't really think its the right way but the ponies dont really mind.
 
If its cool weather and she is sweaty she gets rugged in a waffle-weave cooler type thing til she's dry. If its boiling weather, then she gets sponged with cold water on her neck, and between her back legs, then walked round to cool.
 
In the winter we just put their t/o rugs on and put them out in the field. In the summer we hose them with cold water.
 
i remember reading stuff about the research they did on cooling horse s in preparation for the 3DE at the atlanta olympics - it was found that cold water, lots of it, on and then sweat-scraped off the large bum muscles was the best way of coolign them down quickly and efectively without harm. (just read est's reply and she has said the same and even given the link!)

i don't do it in cold weather - but on the hot summer ours all get cold water all over when they have been sweaty. they go out, so i don't want them going out sweaty and it drying and attracting flies.

we do still thatch when they have been worked in the rain and need their turnout rugs back on - but these days the coolers and fleeces are far more effective than the string vests ever were - and i remember using them!
 
I'm interested, as ever in the why. Why cant you put cold water on a hot horse? What would happen? How would it happen? :D
Question- if you are on a beach holiday and get really hot playing volleyball do you a) go for a swim in the sea b) put on a sweatshirt?
 
There is the issue of tying up, which is marginally related to hot muscles/cold temperatures. Tying up can be a result of not enough blood; if you let a horse cool down too quickly, his extra, exercise related circulation may shut down before his muscles are ready.

Recall that the horse is a *big* animal. He's only got so much blood, though, and so his circulation typically needs to be addressing just one activity. This is why feeding too close to exercising can be harmful; if his circulation is focusing on the muscles, and not the digestion, then the feed can begin to ferment in the gut and make the horse ill.

Circulation needs to go down slowly, not immediately, after exercise. But water by itself won't slow circulation to dangerous levels. Water may help slow the circulation, but other factors influence circulation as well--the worst thing would be to cover a horse in cold water then make him stand still. But as long as you're letting him keep moving, and allowing him to "cool down" from exercise without just making him stand still, then cold water should be helpful, not harmful.
 
Yes, there's been a lot of research done in the last 50 years into both human and sports physiology. You may remember there was a time when humans also weren't supposed to go near cold water during sports - now we know about hydration, electrolytes and thermal overload during exertion. (Sports people also used to have steak and eggs pre-sports)

One of the limiting factors for performance is heat overload. When a horse is galloping (or trotting etc) one of the factors that stops him is heat - because he is a big animal his surface to mass ratio is not that great for shedding heat and there is a limit to sweating.

So when dealing with a hot horse after exercise, getting his temperature down is one of the first things that you should be aiming to do - however as Galadriel has said this mustn't be at the expense of circulation. There is also another factor to consider when hosing your horse - water holds heat very efficiently. So you should not hose your horse and then leave the water there - if you do it will hold more heat than you shed with the initial hosing - you have put a water blanket on him. If you notice at endurance races - they hose\bucket water on and immediately use a sweat scraper to get most of it off again. Then the horse is walked and this procedure is repeated several times.

The old 'rules' of walking a horse dry still apply - because you still need to ensure that any horse has recovered their breathing rate and that optimal circulation has removed lactic acid\returned nutrients and glucose to the muscles. However, we now know that heat can\should be removed quickly.

If your horse has already had a cool down period or is simply sweaty from a sunny day - a nice cold shower or wash down from a bucket is as refreshing as it is to us.

Certainly on a cold day you have to be more careful - but remember that a sweating horse is already wet from the inside out, so adding more water doesn't make the situation worse. Because you scrape down you are making the horse more comfortable, by removing both the salts and dirt of the sweat, removing some of the thermal load and removing some of the water (sweat) that was keeping him hot. In cold weather I would still wash down a very sweaty horse (a hunter) but I would also immediately use a cooler rug and walk the horse and as it begins to return to a normal temp add a more subtantial rug (assuming its clipped). The old 'thatch' isn't used much because there aren't as many places that still use straw for a start, its a lot of effort when you can just use a modern cooler and not many people know how to do it properly

I think lots of 'rules' about horsekeeping were often made in the same way as 'safety' rules are made today, for the lowest common denominator. You know there are very few people who will use the hairdryer in the shower - but there's bound to be one, so they put the label on it. So it was with grooms and horseowners, there'd always be one who couldn't use his commonsense and if allowed to cool down a horse with cold water, would've thrown a bucket of water at it after a hard ride and simply left it to stand in the stalls until he remembered it later that day or until the head groom found the chilled and stiff horse.
 
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I use cold water. In fact I don't know anybody who has warm water. I don't know anybody who has access to large amounts of ice water either :confused:
We live in Texas so our Winters are fairly limited. I don't bathe him if the temps are below 70 degrees. I have a warm up and a cool down period with each ride.
We wash them to wash off the sweat. We don't wait until the sweat is dry.
My horse has anhidrosis and cooling down is of utmost importance. I have always used the system Mehitabel described:
hose with water, scrape off excess.
If you don't scrape off the excess the hair and excess water actually kind of insulates and keeps heat in. Scraped off however it evaporates quickly and the evaporation helps with cooling. :)
I guess I came to riding relatively late- only about 4 years ago and at that time research must have already come up with different suggestions. When I was taught to take care of horses the hose and scrape is what everybody did.
 
jinglejoys said:
Black Beauty has a lot to answer for!! :D
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Black Beauty was absolutely accurate. He was overheated from working much too hard, the weather was quite cold, and they gave him cold water and stuck him in a stall. That can make any horse sick. That would probably make a person sick.
 
Oh the arguments we had in the enduracne world over this.

Bear in mind I started Endurance in the late 70's, the sport in it's embryo, so your thinking Side saddle lady are what we were taught........by the time I finished in the early 90's everyone was pouring cold water over their horse from head to tail and vets were reccomending this.

And the bit about never riding until an hour has passed after food...out the window for endurance, get short sharp feeds down them the whole way round. OAts and high energy food at every opportunity.

I think you are better bringing dow the temperature quickly than risking sweating up under a rug later on.

I remember using the thatching method and having to constantly monitor the horse and maybe him breaking out as much as 2 hours after work. Bring down the temp fast then rug accordingly.
 
KarinUS said:
If you don't scrape off the excess the hair and excess water actually kind of insulates and keeps heat in. Scraped off however it evaporates quickly and the evaporation helps with cooling. :)
I'd never really thought of it that way, but I believe you. It's always amazing to me how you can hose a horse down with cold well water and by the time you use the sweat scraper it's hot water running over your hands! :)

We use cold water, too, but I've always been told to start with his feet and legs, then the haunches and back, and do the chest last. Anybody else heard that? I've been told it's to avoid shocking the heart.
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Peace said:
We use cold water, too, but I've always been told to start with his feet and legs, then the haunches and back, and do the chest last. Anybody else heard that? I've been told it's to avoid shocking the heart.
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I was told also to start with the feet and legs then haunches etc so the horse 'gets used' to the feel of the water...kind of like when you go swimming some people wade in until the shock of the cold water isn't so great before jumping all the way in. No one mentioned about shocking the heart though. Interesting.

I've always been told to use the sweat scrapper for exactly the reason <b>KarinUS</b> mentions.
 
Peace said:
We use cold water, too, but I've always been told to start with his feet and legs, then the haunches and back, and do the chest last. Anybody else heard that? I've been told it's to avoid shocking the heart.
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Yes, that's the way I learned it when I took my first lessons a few years ago. Like going into a cold pool- toes first...;) It's the polite thing to do. :)
 
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