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.

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?