Dangerous heat index!

[susanminiponygirl]

Here in Florida it gets pretty warm! We went to Home Depot's garden section and bought misters to use. They sell them for use around patios and such. Hooks up to a hose. Puts out a light mist rather than a spray and we put it around the watering areas. The horses don't seem to mind the mist and some will actually stick their faces right up to it. Seems to cool the air a bit.

 

[Margaret]

Tee Hee.... Our heat index tripped 113 yesterday, and I still cant get my grazers to stay out of the sun! We have plenty of shade, with 9 trees in our 1 acre pasture, but they still prefer to stick it out in the sun- most of the time. I even have a mare that shipped in from Washington 6 months ago, and she is the most adamate about grazing in the sunshine, in the heat of the day.. We are not even up to our worst heat which is usually up to 117, so I am thankful that they are adjusting so well.

:

 

[MInx]

Very hot here too. Our horses are all outside as the barn gets way too hot.

 


Be very careful with using box fans. My farrier told me they had two catch on fire . There are ones that Tractor Supply sells that are safe. He said that the motor has to be enclosed. The typical box fans are not safe. Just thought I would pass that on.

Wow hadn't heard that! Will definatly check often! We've used them for years at county fair with nor problem but they are off at night as are these.

One thing about our place even a little breeze off our lake will cool it at night.

Will be checking out the Tractor Supply ones for sure.. hope they have them online as we have no store closer than an hour away.

ALso just so you know, my horses are free to go in and out during the day and night. They prefer it that way, except for severe storms and that's another thread Yesterday Shammy and Shadow were both stretched out intheir stalls (gates open) sleeping and SHortcake was laid out flat sleeping in the aisleway!

Maxine

 

[Margo_C-T]

I believe this is global warming, becoming real...

I live at 6600 ft. altitude, have no air conditioning, but practice intense management of my house and barn environment. Thankfully, this is an area of generally low humidity(I can NOT tolerate high humidity, so simply couldn't exist anywhere it is both humid AND gets hot!-nor where it routinely goes well over 100 daily, no matter WHAT kind of heat it is-like Phoenix!!)-and it nearly always cools off nicely at night here-so I use fans to move that air into the house at night, then shut it up tight early in the AM-drapes closed, open doors as little as possible, don't even bring my truck back into the garage if I've been out and the engine is hot(during the day; wait to bring it in until late at night)-my house and garage are well-insulated, which means they 'hold' the cool air very well, thankfully!

At the barn(75'X 36",insulated metal)-my stall doors to the outside face east, are shaded by the barn in the PM, so I shut my horses out until about 10 AM, then open the lower doors so they can be 'in or out',and unless it is raining/threatening rain, shut them out again(into their roomy runs)around 4 or so, when they have the shade of the building; if the weather isn't bad, they stay outside at night, at this time of year(on occasion, I end up out there in the middle of the night, letting them in, when a storm sneaks up!!)I keep water buckets both inside AND outside of their stalls, so I don't have to move them back and forth-the outside ones get warm in the sun by @ noon, but are later shaded by the barn and cool back off, and the inside ones are always cool(I have automatic waterers in the barn, but quit using them a couple of years ago...I don't like not being able to SEE whether/how much water each horse is drinking, believe that is a dangerous drawback of auto. waterers.)I have enough faucets/hoses that I only have to carry buckets to refill waters to two of the Minis at the barn-and then, not very far. The other minis are in a BIG semi-round corral with a 36' x 16' run-in shed, south-facing, so they have 'daylong' shade-and a water trough with faucet right there. My 'big' mare has a 125' x 25' corral, with a nice big shade tree just outside the west side,put there specifically so she would have shade when really needed-when the weather turns bad, I can let her into a connecting alley I constructed with portable panels, to a 12' square run in shed with its own 50' run. There is a faucet at one end; I run a long hose out to her water barrels in her big pen(which is actually one end of my arena, which I partitioned off with panels.) She has plenty of 'moving around' room, and I don't have to clean up after her so much! It all works pretty well, just takes time to manage it all.

Margo

 

[KanoasDestiny]

I live in the Mojave Desert of Southern California and we have our share of warm weather here. Wednesday night, it was 97 degrees at 9:15pm. Our temps on a daily basis are getting up to 110-114. But I agree with what someone else said, the dry heat seems so much better than the humid heat (we had humididty last week and it was aweful!).

My horses don't seem to mind the heat. They have plenty of shade and fresh cool water, but nearly everytime I visit them, they are laying down sunbathing. I don't know how they do it!!! I turn the hose on for them and spray it in the air, and my filly will run through it a few times or just go and stand under it while my colt goes and hides out in the run-in (doesn't care for water much).

 

[Bess Kelly]

Here in coastal VA is was 87 in the shade at 8:AM and the humidity is almost as high as the temp. That's the worst part, the humidity!! You sweat and it can't evaporate, so it just runs all over you. YUK!!!

My horses seem to tolerate it just fine :lol: Most lay out and sunbathe...a few older ladies stand by a tree or shed. Only ones I'm at all concerned about are two new foals. One born Wed afternoon and one this morning. Now, THEY & moms are penned where there is shade and airflow!! In a few days, they will be fine with the heat, also. As always, lots and lots and LOTS of cool water is there to drink.

It's like the snow days -- WE have issues and THEY seem to have fun. :bgrin

But, if they are confined to a stall, they do need a fan, IMO.

 

[northernmi]

Just keep fans indside, thats usually is enough. If they look really miserable hose their legs down. I dont do the whole horse up here because it really draws the horse flies to them when their wet. Makes them even more miserable. You know how they are, I"m sure. I go out and check everyone about every half hour. Your right, they are not used to that heat index in this area. I have only had 1 problem with a young horse last time it got hot and that one we had to hose down and bring him in the main barn. He was in a small run in shed and it is alot warmer in smaller sheds.

 

[CyndiD]

I have only 2 inside...stallions, you know, but the ones that have access to go in and out are usually OUT in the sun no less.....

my yearling stallion and the weanlings were lying out in it like teenagers on the beach...so I am guessing they are OK.

I do make sure they have fresh water and shade....it does get HOT in Ohio. :no:

 

[Mini Horse Lover]

Yes today here in the midwest it is 100 and still rising it is supposed to get up to almost 110 degrees in our area! I worry about my little colt because he is not use to the heat and has just been separated from his mama. But I do put frozen jugs out there in his pasture and he seems to enjoy it! And now I put a sprinkler in his pasture and he loves to dance in it and I watch out the window as he plays in it. And also I put BIG fans in his stall because he has an attached stall. Also one breeder said to me that in hot weeks like this he says to put shavings only in the corner that they use as a bathroom and the rest is rubber mats. Plus I raise rabbits and they live outside and I am so worried as we have a big show next weekend.

Stay cool!

Shelby

 

[susanne]

Our weather is fairly temperate, although being a bit further inland than Liz we do get some warm weather, and it's all relative.

I set up our sprinkler for the horses, but have to bribe them to come into the spray...once they were wet they rather enjoyed it. But the smartest one was our 2-year-old, Flash. He stands right at the edge of the spray where the air is cool.

We also have a tarp shelter in one corner of the corral which gives them sun and rain protection but still allows for fresh air...this is their favorite hangout.

 

[minih]

The thing to make sure of most is that they get enough water intake.....we give our horses Gatorade! We have two, a small mare and a gelding that will get slight cases of colic if they do not drink enough. I think when it is so hot it is just like frozen water they will not drink very much. So we add water in their food at the evening meal and we give Gatorade water. Fill up a bucket and add Gatorade powder at half strength. They love the fruit punch flavor.

 

[Minimor]

We're at 91F today with 42% humidity, almost no breeze at all, and it feels mighty hot out there. First thing this morning it was 93% humidity, but that dropped once the sun was out, thank goodness. Our horses are outside 24/7--they have sheds but most choose to stay outside (sheds are actually hotter than outside), and most of the paddocks do have shade otherwise.

I clipped the foals this morning; one was already done a few weeks ago. At the time he was sick & seemed to be bothered by the heat at that time, plus he was very, very hairy. So, I knocked off the excess hair at that time. The others weren't bothered by the heat, but this morning I felt sorry for them, they felt kind of damp, not actually sweaty, just damp & looked kind of miserable, so I gave them all a quick clip job. I don't shave them because of the flies, I just clip with the hair--it gets rid of the fuzzies but leaves them a decent summer coat. Hopefully it helps them feel a little less hot.

I know if I filled a swimming pool for these babies they would be in it--I do have a big rubber tub I think I'll fill later & let them play in it.

This summer, so far, our nights have been cooling down quite nicely and that helps a lot. We all get to cool off & be comfortable for the night. We run a window air conditioner in the house, which makes it liveable in here, then once we get it cooled down in the evening, when the temperature drops outside the house is good for the night. We've had a few summers where it stayed hot & humid all night long, and when that temperature doesn't drop off for the night, it's really miserable. There is no way I could handle living in the tropics, or even in the southeastern US where it's so hot & humid all summer. I just can't take the heat--the horses definitely fare better than I do!

On the topic of horses & heat--I'm unimpressed with the neighbor from 2 doors down. She has 3 big horses & her pasture was grazed down long ago. So, she's been putting hot wire up around the ditches & letting her horses graze out there--when the grass gets eaten down, she moves them. Now they're across the road from us, in another neighbor's lot. She still fences only a small area then moves the fence when the grass runs out. The horses have no shade at all, just that tiny little pen out in the sun. Some days when they've been out there the nose flies have been so bad. Today there are flies but no nose flies--when I came home with some hay at noon the horses were standing out there looking really really miserable. I think they'd be much better off at home, with some hay to eat--they'd at least have some shade there. These people, though, are too cheap to buy feed for animals. The horses do get hay in winter, but obviously hay isn't worth the money to buy it in summer, and their cats don't get fed....at least not until they move over here where they can eat our catfood...

 

[Soggy Bottom Ranch]

Was 102 degrees here today in our area, and they are calling for even hotter tomorrow! :new_shocked: Isn't it funny how when it's really hot like this, we almost wish for winter, and when it's really cold with blowing snow and sleet, we almost always are wishing for summer!

I hope this makes all of you feel just a little bit cooler!!!

http://www.soggybottomranchalpacas.com/Wisconsin_Winter.html