Keeping your horse hydrated

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You are here: Home / Articles / Horse care

Teresa Hollands

28 August, 2003

The uncharacteristically high temperatures we have seen in recent weeks have led to an increase in calls to the Dodson & Horrell helpline as riders are keen to make sure they are providing sufficient nutritional support for their horses in the heat. Recent research has shown that horses can lose a lot of weight through sweat when competing in hot weather and in a Dodson & Horrell study at Burghley Horse Trials in 2001 some horses were losing up to 26kgs during the cross country phase. But what does an average rider need to do to keep his or her horse hydrated?

How?

Weigh your horse before you leave home and then again when you arrive at a competition. This will give you an indication of the amount of water your horse has lost through travelling. It can be as much as they lose through the competition itself. Weigh your horse before you start the main endurance section and re-weigh them before they drink at the finish but after a few minutes so you can cool down.

Why?

Horses who do not recover well from dehydration maybe more prone to tying-up, exhaustion and poor performance.

But…

Many riders simply don't have access to a weighbridge and weighing at shows is impractical so monitoring weight loss can be difficult.

So...

An easy monitor, which could be kept in your pocket, is a weightape. Initial research on 100 horses at Warwick College indicates that, "regardless of time of day, heart girth varies in direct proportion to actual bodyweight". This shows that it should be possible to measure body weight losses post-exercise using the Dodson &Horrell weightape. This reasoning was tested at Burghley 2000 and 2001(grateful thanks to Mike Gibson and the Burghley vet team) and the results re-enforced the hypothesis. Weightapes are more convenient, readily available and provide an indication of dehydration status by providing an easy method for measuring sweat losses post-exercise

And don't forget

Try weighing yourself (with scales- not a weightape) before you start the competition and afterwards: most of your weight loss will be dehydration. If you have partied the night before, then you will be adding the nail to the coffin. Drink 100mls of water every half an hour: it could be the difference between first and second.