Everything You Need To Know About Horses

Horse Riding In The Rain

• Riding in winter, particularly in the evenings, can mean you bring your horse back sweaty and warm, even though the temperature is freezing… Here’s what to do

Horses will easily catch a chill if they are sweaty and left to stand, uncovered after a ride. And what about rugging? You should NEVER put a rug on a sweaty horse and turn him out for the night !

So when you’re low on time, you’ve finished your ride and the evening is creeping up, follow these steps to make sure your horse is warm and happy when you put him back into his paddock or stable.

Firstly, EVERY time you ride, you should thoroughly warm up and cool down your horse. This means lots and lots of walking. It’s important all throughtout the year, particularly when it’s a bit on the chilly side. After work, your horse needs to stretch his muscles out, and have a relaxed walk until his respiratory rate comes down, and he literally cools down.

Once he’s cool, hop off and un-tack. If your horse is a bit sweaty under the girth, but no where else, you can put his rug over him to keep him warm. If he is sweaty where his saddle was, you need to dry this area right off before rugging him. While you wait to feed him (we all wait at least half an hour after riding, don’t we?) you can begin to dry him off with soft towels, rubbing in a circular motion. This can be very time consuming, particularly with big woolly ponies, but it is very necessary. Once you’ve removed most of the moisture, you can place some fresh, dry towels on his back, and put his rug on over the top. The towels will soak up any moisture missed, but you have to remember to take them out before you let your horse go !

Another alternative (that you often see in horse care books) is to pile straw under an anti-sweat rug, which in effect, does the same job as the towels. Again, the straw must be removed before your horse is turned out. If you are leaving your horse to dry naturally, fluff up his coat, to allow the air to get in to dry him off. Don’t just leave your pony out in the cold, always remove as much sweat as you can from his coat.

Never turn your horse out wet under his rug. Your horse will not dry by himself, the sweat from his coat will soak into the lining of his rug, which will mean he will have a very uncomfortable, wet and cold night ahead of him. It would be better to leave the rug off all together than rug him up wet.