How do horses cope with a change in climate?

[Sarah W]

As per my recent posts I've recently retired my horse from ridden work so I'm (desperately!) looking for another. Although there are lots of horses for sale in Portugal I need - and my RI agrees - a happy hacker/cob type which are unheard of here so I've been looking on UK sites.

However my concern is how would a UK/Irish bred horse cope with the heat here? It has been 44c in the last week - which is unusual for April but normal in July and August. I have a barn for stabling during the day and there is some tree shelter but would it be too much of a shock for a cobby type? Should I be looking in France where there are more cobs who would be used to higher temperatures? Any ideas?

 

[blood_magik]

I used to have horses in dubai, which I would say has a similar climate, if not more humid.
my dad recently imported a Dutch wb from Switzerland and other than dropping some weight, he seems to have acclimatised.
our barns have fans on most of the time and during the really hot weather, they close the barn doors and turn on the ac.

 

[j1ffy]

I go on riding holidays to a place in Andalucia where they have a couple of Welsh cobs that they took with them from the UK. They adapted with no problem. Another Welsh cob recently arrived for a fitness bootcamp and is settling in just fine. Their horses are out 24/7 under trees, so it's a completely shaded area.

My horse went the other way (moved from Spain to UK last year) and I wasn't sure if he'd grow a decent coat - I shouldn't have worried as he spent the winter looking like an overgrown Shetland.

I would suggest moving the horse to Portugal in Spring or Autumn when the weather difference isn't too major so they can get used to the climate gradually and they don't have an inappropriate amount of hair!

 

[imr]

I live in the UAE and moved my WB out here about 18 months ago - he came in the autumn so he could acclimatise and as Blood magik says we have Aircon here for the 4 hottest months. He has been fine. He is going home this summer so as to acclimatise before the winter. That said whilst most of them are fine, some of them do struggle, a lot depends on the horse. My mum is portuguese and the weather here is much more extreme generally than in portugal (44 is really unusal there !! but here we get 4 month of temperatures over 40 and humidity over 50percent) - I wouldnt worry too much but dont get anything too hairy and move it out in the autumn so it can adjust.

 

[blood_magik]

IMr - where r u based? I also did the opposite and brought my wb from the UAE to Scotland and he acclimatised quite quickly albeit with the help of a large number of rugs during the winter

 

[foraday]

My friend has just moved 4 hairy cobs from Scotland 10 degrees to Sote grande (sp) 40+ degrees last week (Friend owns international horse transport company)

When the horses lairaged up in South of France all 4 were clipped for the owner (by request) they arrived in Sote Grande not even hot and got out the lorry and 'yeehawed' around their dust bowl paddock!!!

Horses do seem to adapt-more rugs or clip according to the weather much better than humans a lot of the time. As mentioned above you do get a few exceptions! A horse that is always cold/hot!

 

[Booboos]

I moved 4 (HW cob, 2 WBs and mini) from UK to the South of France and they seem to be fine so far. We moved in September to give them a chance to get used to the heat (the French autumn and spring have so far been like a really good UK summer), they have plenty of shade and protection from the flies which I think is the most important thing. Everyone here is also quite sensible about when they ride during the summer, you have to avoid 11 to 6 ish, but as a rider you'd probably feel too hot to ride during those hours in the summer.

The one thing I did fine is that almost everyone, horses, dogs and OH, succumbed more easily to infections, so I think it takes a wee while for the body to adjust to the different bacteria etc in the environment. Nothing serious, but everyone ended up with antibiotics for what would otherwise have been small cuts.

 

[smellsofhorse]

A tb at our yard came over here from south africa.

Summer coat and lovely weather to British winter at its worst, snow, and ice!

She coped well though, they just had to make sure she was kept warm.

I know its the oposite way round for you but they can cope and adapt.

You wont be able to take layers off like they added layers to the mare.
But if you move them in the cooler months they should gradualy adapt before the hotter months.