Riding in Hot Weather

Every year I usually write a reminder on the dangers of riding in hot weather which are primarily dehydration for you and your horse. Dehydration is simply consuming less water than you are expending through sweat. It (dehydration) sneaks up on people in climates with low humidity, such as the desert Southwest where I live, as the Sun evaporates your sweat quickly, but it is a danger anywhere. Absence of thirst is no indicator of being hydrated.

If you typically go to sleep at 9:00 pm at night then get up around 4:00 am, drink a cup of coffee then get to work. You are very likely dehydrated to start the day.  You have been without water for 7 hours, then drank a diuretic - something that will make your urinate but will also remove essential electrolytes as well. One thing you can do to ensure you start the day hydrated is first of drink a large glass of water before you have your coffee.

You need to protect exposed parts of your skin from the Sun. In the picture at top right, it is 96 degrees. I am pretty much completely covered up from the Sun.  Direct sunlight evaporates water from your body faster and the elevated temperature of your skin forces the body to send more water to maintain cellular and skin health, further dehydrating you faster. Sunburns can, over time, change the structure of skin cells and bring about skin cancer, such as Basil Cell Cancer and worse yet, Melanomas. Even though I have routinely covered all body parts, even my hands, at 58 years old I have had eight spots cut off my body, from BB size to quarter sized, thankfully all Basil cell cancer - the lesser of the skin cancer evils.

Don't save your water - drink it. Not alcohol, not soda pop, but water or water products such as flavored water drinks or Gatorade type drinks. Gatorade and Powerade also have electrolytes such as sodium, potassium in Gatorade and sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium in Powerade to replace the electrolytes that are again lost when you sweat, and through normal metabolism. Both companies sell liquid and powder products.

If you become dizzy or have blurred vision, or get the beginnings of a headache then chances are virtually certain you are dehydrated. My daughter will forever remember coming to me and saying "Dad, I have a headache" and my reply was always "drink a big glass of water and see if it goes away in 20 minutes" and her reply was, "you always say that!" and my reply was "Yes, I always do because lack of water is the likely cause of your headache and drinking water is the easiest and fastest way to see if that was the problem in the first place".

Military and other organizations will often implement a "mandatory drink" policy where someone is responsible for making a periodic announcement to the group to drink water.....say, every 30 minutes the drill would be to drink 6 ounces of water. To drink water you need to have some with you. I always have a canteen of water with me when I ride out. Sometimes I also wear a hydration pack - CamelBak makes the best ones - which allows me to maintain a pace without stopping or slowing to drink from the hydration pack tube and bite valve. The two most common sizes of hydration packs are 70 ounce and 100 ounce. I like the ones with the external fill hole so you can fill the bladder of the hydration pack without removing it from the carrier. If you think that wearing one is bulky or heavy, you would be surprised to learn how quickly you forget you are carrying it. See the picture at the top and note how compact the CamelBak is.  And the advantage of wearing a hydration pack is that if you are thrown or otherwise on the ground and your horse runs away, you still have a source of water with you.

I sometimes teach tracking classes to Search and Rescue (SAR) teams, both government and civilian volunteer. I advise both types to invest in buying the Hi-Viz 70 ounce Camel Baks for each member. The rescue orange and reflector strips on the Hi Viz Camel Bak allow for the search and rescue teams to be easily spotted from the air or ground by other search teams and this would be especially important if you became injured and the SAR focus became you! Look at the picture above left and you can see how well the Hi Viz Camel Bak stands out.


Organizations, private and public, can contact Marisa Williams at CamelBak to get organizational pricing on CamelBaks.  Marisa Williams, phone 800 767-8725 x 9227 or e-mail at - mwilliams@camelbak.com

Individuals can purchase CamelBaks virtually anywhere - check with Amazon.com

You need to be considerate of your horse when riding in hot weather.  Horse's generally do well and don't drink as often as we do.  Know your horse's routine and feed your horses early enough so they can finish eating and get a drink before you pull them for a long ride.  When you get back from a long, hot ride horses will eat if you give them the chance.  I like to put my horses back in a pen with access to clean water, after they have cooled downed, for a good period of time before I feed them, so they can drink.  Know how to check your horse's skin (skin rebound test) and gums (gum blanch test) which are both capillary refill tests to check for potential dehydration.

Water Needs for Horses and Humans

Recent headlines: Yuma Arizona - Temps reach 120 degrees....115 in Phoenix; 107 in El Paso. Four hikers die of dehydration in Arizona........yes, the summer heat is upon us.  I usually write an article on avoiding dehydration and the importance of drinking water about once a year as we get into the heat of the late Spring because it's important and an often over looked fact about life - that we need water, lots of it, and so do our horses. And everyone has heard of the old adege "You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."....truth be known, the same is true for humans as well.

A close friend of mine and I joke from time to time about how our wives and children sometimes  complain about being tired or having a headache and how we always respond with "drink some water".  They'll always  respond "You always say that!".  There's a reason why I always say that, because most people go around all day in some level of dehydration. Drinking water should be the first thing you try to alleviate symptoms.  

People normally quit drinking fluids a few hours from going to sleep, then after sleeping 5 to 8 hours, wake up in some sort a dehydrated state. The first thing you should do upon waking is to drink a glass of water! But most won't, and many horse owners put more thought and anxiety into ensuring that their horses have water than they do themselves. Some people even work their riding schedule around their horse's feeding times taking great care to ensure their horse has had a chance to eat and drink. This is not a bad idea, it's just it can be limiting. Feed earlier, feed lighter before a ride, measure the water tank to determine if the horse had a chance to drink,.....I usually rake smooth the area around a stock tank after throwing feed so I can tell if the horse has drank when I come back to pull the horse to saddle.

Many times I have had to pull a horse and put him in a trailer before he had a chance to eat, so I'll hang a hay net in the trailer, after soaking the hay in water so he gets a chance to get something into his gut and some moisture before being ridden.

I don't give horses measured amounts of water, I just ensure they have fresh, clean free choice water. People on the other hand don't drink the recommended daily amount of water which is about one ounce for every two pounds of body weight. For an 180 pound man, that equals about 6 bottles of water a day, and this is for body maintenance. When you are sweating (losing water) or doing hard work, the need for water goes up quite a bit. I know there is advice being given that recommendations for water intake are exaggerated and that you only need to drink when you are thirsty, but this is simply not true. You can be dehydrated, and pretty severely dehydrated without being thirsty.

Not drinking water because of the inconveince of having to urinate often is just not, repeat, not a good idea. In fact, if you are not peeing fairy often, maybe once every 3-4 hours, then you likely need to drink more water. Same if your urine is dark in color. If you take supplements, you may have yellow or green urine, but after a few hours, maybe four to six hours, after taking your supplements, your urine should return to normal.

I am not going to list all the symptoms of simple dehydration, but certainly if your mouth is dry, if you feel sluggish,...... or stand up from a sitting position, or dismount from your horse and you feel dizzy - then you need to get some water.  Here's a tip - diet soda or beer, is not a replacement for water. 

Protect exposed parts of your body from the direct Sun; a cotton wild rag or neckerchef soaked in water and worn around your neck can help evaporative cool yourself. Silk wild rags don't hold the water well, but their are other fabrics available, as well as cooling scarfs available at most major hardware stores.  

As far as your horses, most of them are good to go for substantial part of the day after eating and drinking in the morning.  If I work a horse in the heat, I let him cool off before I hose him off.  I'll put him in a pen with water for awhile before I ever offer him feed.  Again, I make use of water soaked hay in nets quite often in the summer months.   

Take a look at your horses' water tanks.  Is that something you would drink out of?  I have been to some high end training facilities and some of those stock tanks haven't been dumped and cleaned for quite a while by the looks of it. Sure a horse will drink dirty water when it needs to, but if that horse is in your care, why should it?  Providing free choice clean water for each horse goes along way towards reducing chances of dehydration and colic.   

Heat Injuries: Don't Become a Heat Casualty

With a recent scare on dehydration and noticing that it is very common to people to ride miles in the summer heat with carrying water, I thought an article on Heat Injuries may be appropriate.  

Heat exhaustion is a heat-related illness that may occur after you've been exposed to high temperatures and/or direct Sun and become dehydrated. The dehydration and loss of electrolytes can bring on signs excessive thirst, weakness, dizziness, headache, and even loss of consciousness. The imbalance of lack of electrolytes may also include symptoms of muscle cramps, nausea and vomiting.

Detection of impending heat exhaustion can include lack of urinating for several hours, usually 4 or more hours and a dark colored urine when you do urinate. You may have profuse sweating and a rapid heartbeat. One way to check is after sitting down for several minutes when rapidly standing up you get dizzy and your heart rate goes up 10 or more beats per minute.

 People with Heat Exhaustion need to get out of the heat and/or Sun immediately and get some fluids into their system. Water and electrolytes drinks are best. Stay away from alcohol, soda pop and those drinks with a high sugar content. If you have extra water, sponging water on the dehydrated person can help cool them through evaporation.

 If you get heat exhaustion and don’t reverse it, through fluid intake, then you surely get Heat Stroke, which is a very serious heat injury and a medical emergency. Heat stroke can cause damage to the brain due to the high body core temperature and will usually affect older people faster.

Symptoms of Heat Stroke may include super elevated core body temperature (above 105 degrees Fahrenheit); fainting; severe headache; hot, dry reddish skin; muscle cramps and/or weakness; nausea and/or vomiting; confusion and disorientation; seizures and unconsciousness.

Treatment is essentially the same as for heat exhaustion, but people with heat stroke are medical emergencies. Get them out of the Sun and heat, apply fluids – internally to re-hydrate and externally to provide evaporative cooling. If you can get ice then the application of ice packs on the body where major blood vessels are close to the surface of the skin (arm pits, groin and neck) can help reduce core body temperature.

 If you become a heat casualty, and are fortunate enough to recover, you’ll be more susceptible to a subsequent heat injury.  

Prevention of heat injuries.

Stay Hydrated – a person should be drinking about one ounce of water for every two pounds of body weight. That requirements may double with activity in the heat. If you add in the factor of being in the Sun, like for a long ride in the Summer, evaporation of fluids will increase your water needs. The average person who sleeps seven hours wakes up in a somewhat dehydrated state. If that person go out to feed horses, drinks some coffee,…then maybe has some breakfast before he saddles up and ride exacerbates that dehydrated status unless they drink plenty of water after waking. Drinking coffee (or soda or tea) which is a diuretic, increases the body's need for water. So ensure you are drinking water, and plenty of it.  

Protect exposed parts of your skin from the Sun. Skin that is exposed to the Sun require the body to take fluids, that are vital to blood volume and organ function, to send to the damaged skin. You’ll also lose body fluids faster from skin exposed to the Sun.  

Buddy system and mandatory drink rule. Riding with two or more people obviously makes sense, but the buddy system is about looking after someone. Checking to ensure they drink enough water. Be cognizant of signs of heat exhaustion in that person. The mandatory drink rule is where one person in a group keeps track of elapsed time and announces when it is time to drink. Military and law enforcement units use this concept.

SO drink plenty of water, protect exposed parts of the skin, and, watch for signs of an heat injury. If you don’t do it for yourself, then do it for your horse,...... cause if something happens to you, who is doing to take care of your horse?