Hot weather syndrome

[Tedebra@aol.com]

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to talk about the hot weather for a minute.  I live in Memphis.  
It has been very hot and humid this year as most places.  My horse came to me 
from Utah earlier this year. (hot but dry climate).  I was warned over and 
over again about getting Boomer acclimated to humidity.  I am relatively new 
to this sport.  No one really explained exactly how to get Boomer acclimated 
to this weather. I just decided to ride him early mornings and late evenings 
and figured at the end of this summer he would be somewhat use to it.
He's been doing well so I took him to a ride last Saturday(Scholow ride in 
Mississippi).   A 50 mile ride.  It was hot and humid and I decided I would 
take it easy.  Well, we did well for most of the ride and then it started 
raining.  I was so grateful for rain and I'm sure he was too.  But after 
about a half hour of rain, the sky immediately cleared and the hot sun came 
out and after about 10min or so I realized Boomer did not seem right.  Thank 
god the vet check was just down the road.  I took him in and he was steaming 
and I was unable to get him down to the set HR of 60 .  Had to pour lots of 
water over him for at least 10 minutes.  He finally came down. He is usually 
just about down when we arrive.  It appears or I was informed that after the 
downpour the rain water did not have time to evaporate, there fore when the 
sun came out it developed steam on his body, so he heated up.  I was told it 
would be wise next time to bring some type of scraper along.  What puzzled me 
was the fact that the 2 people in front of me horses did not get the same 
reaction.  I started talking to people and was told the best way to acclimate 
your horse to humidity is to, ride during the hot part of the day.  Any 
suggestions on this?  Thank you.  
Debra
Memphis, TN


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