Re: RC: Re: hot/humid weather

[Kenzie_Kelly@spc.com]

     Forgive me if I'm late answering this and it's already been gone over,
     I'm wading through about 500 emails after a long weekend.  Anyway...

     They did quite a few experiments on the water/humidity issue for the
     '96 Olympics to determine how best to cool the horses.  What was found
     summarily was this:

     In high heat - low humidity, the best way to cool is to soak the horse
     with cool water and leave it on.  This is because the water will
     evaporate, thereby cooling the horse further.

     In high heat - high humidity, the evaporative effect is lost.  It is
     still best to soak the horse in cool water, only the water must be
     scraped off as quickly as possible and re-applied, only to be scraped
     off again.  This is because if left on, the water quickly heats up due
     to body heat and (because it isn't evaporating) actually becomes an
     insulator trapping the heat next to the skin.

     They did an article about this water on/off issue not too long ago in
     one of the main books (Horse Illustrated?) for part of their "beat the
     heat" series.  I could try to find the exact article if anyone's
     interested.

     Kenzie


______________________________ Reply Separator ____________________________
_____
Subject: RC: Re: hot/humid weather
Author:  "Dyane Smith" <sunibey@sisqtel.net>
Date:    9/10/99 11:07 AM

Diane,
One rider indicated that he/she was told that the rain shower made the
horse steam and caused more of a problem (sorry to the one whose name I
forgot who posted this if I have mistated the case).  Do you understand why
that would happen?  I thought getting wet would help, although I understand
that high humidity is tough to beat in any case.
Dyane
N. Cal.




=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=