Anyone who has worked or played in high heat knows how exhausting it can be.  High, fluid-sapping desert heat can drain you in no time as you sweat away volumes of fluids and electrolytes. Then there’s the suppressive, sweaty, heat-and-humidity combination where the air is so heavy you practically swim through it. Given how lethargic, uncomfortable, and sometimes a little ill we humans can feel in high heat when we only need to cool our relatively limited muscle mass, imagine how carrying around a 1,000 pounds of steaming muscle and body heat and hair coat feels to our equine partners.

Washing horses with cold water is an effective, safe say to cool the horse during hot weather or after competition.

Races and heats and rounds and shows are held in all kinds of weather, and if we want our horses to do their best while competing in the heat, then we have to do our best to condition and acclimate them to withstand high temperatures