Summer Horse Health Precautions

Learn how to maintain your horse’s health during the summer season. Discover the importance of monitoring hydration and preventing dehydration in horses.

Summer horse health means keeping on top of conditions that come with the hot weather and increased outings. Summer is a busy time for equestrians, so simple changes to maintain horse health can often go a-miss! So, what should horse owners keep a keen eye on to maintain their horse’s health during summer?

Hydration

Monitoring your horse’s hydration is a must in the summer, with the days normally much warmer and activity level increasing from more shows and better ground-conditions.

Dehydration plays a major role in bodily functions, therefore can affect the health and performance of your horse.

When horses become dehydrated, it can put them at major risk of conditions such as colic. Without water, faeces can become impacted and block the intestine, resulting in impaction colic.

On the other hand, water plays a key role in performance. Water in necessary for the removal of waste product from exercise, thermoregulation, as well as sending messages for movement and control. With inadequate amounts of water, messages your horse needs to perform optimally can be delayed, which may result in an increased chance of injury. In addition, a dehydrated horse may be more suspectable to pain, discomfort and possible musculoskeletal damage from waste product build up and overheating.

In the summer, make sure your horse has constant access to fresh water. If you are worried about their water intake, supplementing with electrolytes or providing soaked hay or feed can help with water intake.

Flies

Flies are an extreme annoyance to our horses during the summer! Bites can be itchy and even painful, so reducing exposure to flies is essential to ensure comfort.

In the summer, application of some of the best fly repellents can be extremely helpful. Most are applied straight to the horse, whilst other fly repellents can be used on surrounding stable features and equipment to further deter flies.

Swollen bites can be cold-hosed to soothe, however extreme swelling or discomfort from fly bites should be investigated by a vet.

Sun Protection

Horses with pink areas of skin can be particular prone to sunburn. Therefore, it is essential to cover pink areas with adequate amounts of equine specific sunscreen.

Horses who suffer from sunburn are usually those with white coats or where white markings are present around the face, in particular the nose.

In areas where sunscreen cannot be applied, such as around the eyes, a UV face mask should be worn.

Be mindful of product build-up and use of creams that aren’t suitable for animal skin. Reactions such as pealing, and in some cases making the burn worse, have been identified when applying products such as Sudocrem.

Laminitis

Summer can bring on sudden bouts of laminitis, with the grass growing at phenomenal rates and full of sugars and starch.

For those horses prone to laminitis, strict adherence to a low-sugar diet is recommended. This can look like; turning out only during periods where sugars in the grass are low or allowing turnout without access to grass, but low-sugar forage instead.

Hoof Bruising

With warmer weather, often comes harder ground. Hard ground can be the cause of many hoof ailments, however, most commonly resulting in bruising of the hoof.

Hoof bruising can be sign that your horse has done too much intense exercise on too hard ground. This may not only mean your horse’s feet are sore, but they may be experiencing concussive injury to bones, joints and ligaments all the way up the leg. Where possible, riders should opt for specially prepared equestrian surfaces when soles are bruised, or abstain from riding until the sensitivity has passed.

Regular consultations with the farrier will assist with recovery. He, or she, will be able to recommend a treatment plan moving forward to help prevent the situation from happening again.

---

Some of the items featured in this article, we may earn a commission on should you choose to buy.  If though, for whatever reason, you choose to return the item we will not. With this in mind, we aim to only give relevant recommendations and information that may help you in the decision process when choosing whether or not to buy.