How to Walk a Hot Horse Cool
Although you may be exhausted after your ride, you are not done yet. Your faithful steed needs care before you can relax. If his body temperature is elevated, and he's stuck back in his stall, he could get colic or another illness. A horse's body needs to be addressed gradually. You can plan on taking at least a half hour to cool down your horse, although each horse's recovery time is different.
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Things You'll Need
- Good walking shoes
- Stall, hitching post or cross ties
- Lead rope
- Halter
- Bucket of cool to lukewarm water
- Sponge
- Horse blanket or sheet (optional)
Instructions
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Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot
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1
Lead the hot, sweaty horse to the cross ties, post or to the stall so he can be still as you un-tack. Allow your horse only three swallows of water and then promptly remove the bucket. Every 20 minutes, let the horse take three more swallows of water until he is cool.
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2
Get a bucket of lukewarm to cool water (use cold only if you don't have a choice) and a sponge.
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3
Wipe off the sweaty spots on the horse with the water.
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4
Change into comfortable walking shoes, if you have to. If not, skip to Step 5.
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5
Put a light blanket, or cooling sheet, onto your horse.
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6
Put on the halter and lead rope. Walk your horse around at a sedate pace (or as sedate as your horse will allow). Your horse should keep moving, but can have a mouthful of grass every now and then.
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7
Keep checking to see if your horse's body temperature has cooled down. You do this by placing your palm in between your horse's forelegs. Sometimes your horse will cool off even before he dries off.
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8
When your horse's body has cooled, either place him back in the stall or let him go out into the pasture for some relaxation.
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1
Tips & Warnings
The procedure is completely different for standard bred racehorses. Instead of being walked cool, they are given a bath, their blanket is put on while they're still wet and then they stand in their stalls until they are dry.
If it hurts too much to walk in your riding boots, switch to paddock boots or walking shoes before you walk your horse cool.
Wait an hour before feeding your horse any grain. A couple of carrots or an apple is okay, though.
If your horse is kept indoors most of the winter, consider clipping off part of the heavy winter coat in order to shorten cooling time and help keep your horse dry.
Don't let your hot horse drink ice-cold water.
Don't keep looking at your watch and thinking of the time. This will make you and your horse stress out.
Don't scrape all of the sweat off with a sweat scraper. Your horse will need the sweat to help cool off faster.
Resources
- Photo Credit Image of happy horse by Tsu Nellis
