Do your minis sweat much?

[KLJcowgirl]

Hello again.

This may be a really silly question, but the other night I went for a ride, and I ponied little Miss May on the trail. My QH is an extreme sweater, and was already moist around the base of his neck before I saddled him, but was dripping by the time I was done. To be fair, he is quite out of shape and a bit tubby right now. It was still pretty hot that evening, but Miss May didn't even break a sweat, not one drop. We rode for about an hour and a half, and she chooses to slow jog most the time to keep up with my big guy's big stride. She's not super in shape, but she's not really out of shape either, so I expected at least a little bit. And I do know she sweats because just before I body shaved her I worked her pretty hard one night and she was a touch moist underneath her coat, she didn't look sweaty, but I could feel it if I stuck my fingers under the hair.

Still gave both of them a good hose down when we were done.

Anyways... rambling...

My question is pretty much what the title is. Do you find your mini's sweating less, or is this just an individual thing?

 

[NewToMini's]

My mare doesn't sweat much. She used to sweat if I took her filly out of the field, because she would canter around the field the entire time I had the filly out. I take her on 1-2 mile 'walks' that she ends up trotting most of, and she doesn't sweat at all.

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

Honeatly, an hour or so of a light jog without a rider isn't super heavy exercise. Not surprised she didn't sweat.

My pony will sweat under saddle. My mini really didn't, but then again he doesn't get worked quite so hard either.

 

[Erickson Miniature Horses]

After mine are clipped they don't sweat nearly as much as with their full coat.

Some of my horses tend to sweat more or less than others depending on how much water they drink, how out of shape they are, if their clipped, what time of day it is.

 

[KLJcowgirl]

I guess it just seemed weird to me. I was honestly kind of worried at first, don't know why haha But thanks for your replies. I guess she did have it pretty easy just being ponied

 

[Marsha Cassada]

A two mile drive when the humidity is up pretty high will make mine sweat. This morning it is 83 degrees with fairly low humidity and I could feel a little moist heat on him when we got home, but not what I'd call sweat. We trotted most of the way. He is getting in better shape now. I've had them sweat more in the winter after a drive with that heavy coat than in the summer heat.

 

[paintponylvr]

Pretty much same as others' replies.

I have also noticed it is somewhat individual. I've had full siblings not sweat the same on the same day w/ approximately the same amount of work. When we were working our ponies hard during the winter (pulling my bum consistently is WORK), we kept them trace clipped and still would have the sweat in the heavier parts of the coat.

The sweat consistency varies with how in shape our ponies are. When out of shape, the sweat would be ultra thick, foamy and more sticky. When in better shape, the sweat had a tendency to run clear (what I call a "sluicing" sweat, LOL), not so sticky, dried faster and wasn't usually so foamy EXCEPT between the hind legs. When their mouths were moist, usually had more mouth foam then sweat foam...

I guess you can't really see the sticky, foamy sweat in this pic - both mares were not really in condition for this particular drive (I didn't know we'd hit a trail and not return to the trailer for more than 20 miles or so. We were used to driving about an 1.5 -2 hours, returning to the trailer for a break and then I'd switch pairs to go out for another 1.5 hours). The bay spot mare lost a ton of weight that weekend and I ended up not driving her again for over a month while I built her weight back up and got her in better shape through ponying and ground driving. She did stress terribly when being driven and eventually I sold her and got her 1/2 sister that is more suited to driving (ie - she loves it!). This was May 2013.

Turns out that the only pics I seem to have of sweaty ponies is when they have either a trace clipped winter coat, or full winter coats...

I do have one mare that doesn't sweat much regardless of the situation and I always worry about her when the others start sweating.