Do you bath your horse in hot or cold water and for what reason?

Warm, not hot. I'm not a horse, so I don't know, but I can't imagine enjoying a freezing cold bath...unless I was a polar bear or something. Which I'm not. Nor is my horse.
However I don't think it's cruel to bath in other forms, if needs must. I don't know many people who would be wantonly cruel to their horses. I'm just lucky enough to have my horse outside the back door so have access to warm water :)
 
MochaDun said:
I was always told not to absolutely douse/hose them in cold water if they were very sweaty after exercise as can cause problems (like massive blood vessel constriction which I guess could lead to colic and/or heart attack) so I will either use warm water by adding a kettle of hot to a bucket of cold and a sponge or just use cold but only with a sponge and on the very sweaty bits and not leave them soaked from head to foot. I've seen horses at our yard with a freezing cold hose turned on them after coming back from being ridden in the summer drenched in sweat and a finer skinned sensitive one nearly went out his skin, fell on the concrete where he was tied up whilst being hosed and cut his lip with his tooth where his chin hit the wall. Not recommended. I always think, just wise to assess it and think how you would feel with that sort of thing done to you if very hot. It depends on the individual horse a bit I think too - as some a lot more sensitive and thin skinned than others.
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IN NZ the majority of racing stables will have just a cold water hose - we hose everything after work even on frosty mornings - they get scraped, towelled over, cover put back on and may go on the walker but generally straight back to their stable - they never seem to come to any harm.
 
MochaDun said:
I was always told not to absolutely douse/hose them in cold water if they were very sweaty after exercise as can cause problems (like massive blood vessel constriction which I guess could lead to colic and/or heart attack) so I will either use warm water by adding a kettle of hot to a bucket of cold and a sponge or just use cold but only with a sponge and on the very sweaty bits and not leave them soaked from head to foot. I've seen horses at our yard with a freezing cold hose turned on them after coming back from being ridden in the summer drenched in sweat and a finer skinned sensitive one nearly went out his skin, fell on the concrete where he was tied up whilst being hosed and cut his lip with his tooth where his chin hit the wall. Not recommended. I always think, just wise to assess it and think how you would feel with that sort of thing done to you if very hot. It depends on the individual horse a bit I think too - as some a lot more sensitive and thin skinned than others.
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blitznbobs said:
The vet studies after the AUstralian olympics said that you should cool a horse off with lots of cool water as quickly as possible,.... but the aus is hotter than here...

BnBx
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This is similar to what I've always been taught - the horse must be properly cooled off / walked off before you start washing them down. Cool water is ok but water out a hose pipe can be freezing cold.

I'd hate a cold bath when the temp is cold so I always try to at the very least use luke warm water and hot if it's really cold even if it means lots of kettle boiling but I also try and avoid full baths when the weather poor.
In the summer on a hot day I'll wash with warm water then rinse with the hose.
 
Always warm, why would they want cold water on them? For washing, warm is better for getting out grease and if trying to cool them down, any doctor will tell any mum who has a feverish child that tepid water is best and quickest to cool them down, not cold...so I use the same view with horses. Not that my poor horses often get a bath poor sausages.
 
I have hot water in my house, so I take it from there! It is a chore but my horses are a bit scared of Mr sponge at the moment so trying to make it as pleasant as possible for them. If I run out I may chuck a bucket of cold water over to rinse, then hopefully they've forgotten about that bit for next time :-)

Probably in summer it'll just be tepid.

I don't think its cruel to use cold, I'm sure racehorses are boiling hot and are bathed all the time anyway.
 
Warm water to wash as that gets him cleaner the cold hose off to rinse

I feel personally that rinsing with warm is only feasible if you have plenty of it so a shower is fine but constant trips to the kitchen with a bucket is time consuming so the horse stays wet longer and if the rinse isn't plentiful enough then that's not good

I'd rather use cold and make sure it's done quickly with no residue left from the shampoo

Sweat scrape and towel dry legs

Towelling Hoodie and Thermatex then walked
 
We only have cold water at the yard so for normal baths cold water.
If I'm going to a show, I bring bottles of hot water from home cos it gets a better result on the white.
 
If it's a really hot day, I'll use cool water (never freezing cold!), if it's a mild/cooler day I use warm water, if it's freezing then I don't wash them unless absolutely necessary! x
 
Cold water. Usually straight out of the hose or out of a bucket at a show. Wouldn't dream of trying to cool them down with warm water but also wouldn't dream of washing them in the winter either. In the summer the mains water round here is close to 20°C so not exactly freezing cold but we're not quite there yet.
 
I don't often wash mine as I like them to be out as much as possible and think it takes out the oils. However, I do like to keep the saddle area scrupulously clean as have had problems with a new horse having those collagen lumps. Use warm water for that. In the past when it has been hot (!) and my horse is sweaty I will use the spray cold hose held a good way away so it is more of a mist, then get a bit nearer to get more water on it so that way there is less of a cold shock. TBH when coming back from a hot ride I have stuck my own head under the cold water hose before now as well!
 
Just to give you all a laugh, I have always remembered advice from one of my Pony Club instructors in the dim and distant past, which is that you should only bath a horse in cold water if the weather is warm enough for you to be happy to wear a bikini at the time!!!!
I have given my old boy his annual bath today (using cold water, as it was 18 degrees and sunny, but no, I didn't wear a bikini . . .
 
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