Cooling Horses Out After Exercise

Growing up as a young equestrian in the 1970’s, we were instructed to cool our horses out by dismounting, removing the saddle and hand walking them until they were thoroughly cooled out. I took lessons at a stable that had a large pond in the middle of the hunt course, and so I would walk around the pond and after each lap, I would offer my horse a drink of water.

Around and around and around I went, with lesson horses Sassy, Jackson and Ruff & Ready!

This method of cooling out was the standard, until the 1990’s, when studies done in preparation for the 1996 Olympics, being held in the hot and steamy city of Atlanta, Georgia, determined that it was best to immediately hose the horse off, while scraping the excess water off, and to allow the horse to drink water immediately. And once we realized that our hot horses were not going to colic, this became the standard for cooling out our horses. Hose and scrape, hose and scrape.

Now the cooling out rules that most of us have been following for nearly 30 years have been debunked. We have been doing it all wrong This is because the results of a study done by the Japan Racing Association’s Equine Research Institute have started making the rounds on social media, despite the fact that the study was conducted in 2018.

In their study, 5 methods of cooling horses after exercise in hot and humid conditions were compared. Five thoroughbreds were exercised on a treadmill at a temperature of 31.8 +/1 0.1 C, (roughly 89.24 degrees farenheit for those of us who are clueless when it comes to understanding celsius readings) until their pulmonary artery temperature reached 42C. (107.6 F). The time that it took until the pulmonary artery temperature returned to <39C (102.2 F) and the rectal temperature at 30 minutes after the onset of cooling were then compared between the five cooling methods in a 5 ×5 Latin square design.

The five methods of cooling were:

1) Walking with no additional cooling (CONT)

2) Walking with fans producing an air current of 3.0m/s (FAN)

3) Walking with intermittent application of cold water at 10C, (50 F) with scraping (ICW + SCRAPE)

4) Walking with intermittent application of cold water at 10C without scraping (ICW)

5) Stationary, with the continuous application of tap water at 26C (78.8 F), using a hose (STW)

The results showed that the stationary with continuous application of hose water (STW), produced the fastest amount of time for the pulmonary artery temperature to return to normal. Their research indicated that a humid environment will limit evaporation, making it essential to heat conduction. The key component is not the water temperature or the scraping, but rather that the horse is kept covered in water that is cooler than its body temperature for an extended period.

Horses that were cooled out by walking (CONT), that way of cooling out that I was taught in the 1970’s, with no additional cooling measures, took the longest time to cool out, (I apologize to my mounts as a child rider!), while (FAN), took the 2nd longest amount of time. After STW, the fastest method was ICW, followed by ICW + SCRAPE.

The use of scraping a horse has never been shown to be efficient in cooling horses, however it is a tradition that is deeply-rooted and scrapers are not likely to disappear from the wash stall any time soon. By the same token, ice, misting fans, and fans in general, while being impractical, bulky, and difficult to store, will probably still be part of the cooling down practice, especially in sports like eventing and racing. But at least you don’t need to feel guilty for forgetting to scrape your horse!

As for letting your horse drink after exercise….it is a myth that allowing a horse to drink water after exercise will cause him to colic. Research shows that allowing horses to drink small amounts is fine. According to an Equus magazine article, Dr. Anthony Blikslager states that horses should be able to consume roughly ½ gallon at a time. He states the reason for this is due to the size of the horse’s stomach holding only 2- 3 gallons and the fact that the stomach needs to empty before taking in any more water. When a horse is exercised, the stomach and intestines shut down temporarily to shift the blood flow to the heart and lungs. Thus, it is best to allow small amounts of water at a time, but horses should never have water withheld until they are completely cooled out.

If you are a technical person, or an engineer such as my husband, who gets excited at words like thermoregulation and heat conduction, you can find the entire study online.

Meanwhile, I will no longer feel guilty about not using the scraper. I will also continue to make sure that I hose off between the legs and under the tail….sadly, something I see many neglecting to do when hosing off their horse.

In news regarding the release of my book…things are really moving along and we are right on schedule for a release date of 9/15/2024.

I created a new website! You can still access my blog through this site, or go to my new website, which has a button that will take you to this blog site. The new website is www.commonsensehorsekeeping.com

Stay cool! The weather is wicked mean right now.