Dealing With The Heat Of Summer

How much heat and humidity can a horse safely handle on summer rides? If the horse is kept in a stable and is 200 pounds over weight don't expect him to be able to safely perform in elevated temperatures. If the horse lives outside 24/7 and is not forced to live with the consequences of obesity, chances are that he can handle the weather better then his rider can. 

As I have aged one of the biggest changes that I saw in my health was a growing inability to tolerate heat.  It was impacting the number of hours that I was spending in the saddle and it brought the amount of work that I could do outside nearly to a halt. 

But all of that has changed and it changed within a week of implementing some important lifestyle changes. I began with cold showers and progressed to taking baths in ice water with large, frozen ice packs on my body. 

We recently purchased a sauna and it is the best purchase that we have made in very many years. Unlike just about everything that one does to improve one's health, the results of sauna use and ice baths come nearly immediately.

The science is too detailed to explain here. Do the research. Learn what heat stress proteins can do for your health. Learn about the creation of brown fat. 

While you are researching keep this point in mind. Very few animals evolved  to sweat. Humans are capable of producing tremendous amounts of sweat daily. In the past 75 years air conditioning and central heat have allowed many Americans to live an entire year with out experiencing true cold or heat for any period of time.

 We evolved to be mobile. Few things are more unhealthy than living a sedentary life. We evolved to sweat. I suspect that one day we will find out that a sweat free lifestyle is as unhealthy as sentencing one's body to lifetime confinement in a lounge chair.