Horses sweat to cool themselves, but in doing this, they lose electrolytes. Sweating robs sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium & chloride from the body.

Loss of electrolytes cause heart rate to rise and pulse pressure to drop. You will also see abnormal sweating patterns and slow capillary refill. Your horse will have decrease performance and show reluctance to continue. He will have a dull, disinterested attitude. Skin will be slow to return to normal when pinched. At this point a 1000 lb horse has lost approximately 5 gallons of fluid. Early electrolyte loss will produce no obvious clinical signs.

A 600-1000 lb horse can loose approximately 30 lbs of body weight or 1.5 to 2.5 gallons of fluid per hour. After a horse looses all extracellular water, it begins robbing muscle fibers and blood of its intracellular body tissues fluids. Some commercially prepared electrolytes are not designed for horses that have lost electrolytes through sweat, so read the label.

* The higher the temperature, the harder the horse has to work to stay cool.

* high humidity makes the horse’s sweat less effective and his ability to dissipate body hear is reduced.

* Horses work harder over difficult terrain and create more body heat.

* Faster paces = higher workload and heat = more sweat = greater electrolyte loss.

Minimize electrolyte loss by cooling your mount with water along the trail. Water is 20xs more effective at cooling than air.

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