Is it me.. turning horse out wet.

Erm...the water is "hot" because it has absorbed some of the horse's heat, and will then evaporate, further cooling the horse. The idea that a wet horse is a hot horse goes against the laws of physics. Anyway. I have no problem sponging off when sweaty and then turning out straight away and have done for 30 odd years.
 
Unless it's 37 degrees or higher it's not going to heat up your horse. Try this experiment. Put one hand in warm water and keep the other dry (after vigorous exercise if you like) now go outside in the uk summer day... which hand feels cooler? The laws of physics will make it the wet one as the evaporation is what causes the cooling effect... people jump in a pool and get soggy for the same reason on hot holidays .
 
I must have missed the stage of evolution where horse and human physiology became so comparable

Each to their own and I will continue to scrape after washing off a hot horse on a hot day ... my choice I guess!!
 
TeamChaser said:
So a horse that you've hosed and soaked thoroughly will remove all excess water itself?? Pretty sure all 3 have perfectly normal reflexes, still wouldn't put them out soaking wet in hot sun

"It is critical to scrape the warmed water off immediately, or the water may serve as insulation and might actually increase the horse's body temperature."
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OK, so the full quote comes from an article explaining how to cool an overheated horse in temperatures greater than 25C, not how to wash off a horse who has sweated a bit on a ride.

The full quote is:


'To cool an overheated horse (rectal temperature exceeding 103°F), spray or sponge the horse's head, back, neck, rump, and legs with cool water and immediately scrape the water off, repeating continuously until the horse is cool (Figure 2). This is an effective cooling method because heat is transferred from the horse's muscles and skin to the water, which is then removed to cool the horse. It is critical to scrape the warmed water off immediately, or the water may serve as insulation and might actually increase the horse's body temperature.'


I think I'll keep turning mine out dripping wet.
 
Drying out in the sun is a treat for ours after they've worked. They get untacked, sent to the sand for a good roll, hosed off, scraped (but they're still pretty wet) and have a lovely pick in the good grass while they dry. Very happy horses and no problems.
 
Probably for the same reason that I'm really cruel for leaving the horses in a field with little in it.. Horses being two lamintic ponies.
I think it's naïve people ... surely.

That being said your brave! - my cream dun would be a lovely shade of chocolate dun if I did such a think as hose him and put him out haha!
 
I have no answer to this thread as to whether you should turn a horse out wet, but I do know that people are prone to making random comments with no knowledge behind them. I have ridden a horse down a high street at walk with me in fancy dress and heard 'oh that can't be good for them'. I have seen a notice saying 'please do not feed these ponies' and people feeding them because it was only grass or not much.
 
We get days over 40 degrees in summer, but it is a dry heat. My retired horse loves to roll in the dirt after a hose down. He is dry within 10 minutes anyway, even in the shade. He prefers to roll in dirt than grass and he has dug up a dirt patch in his paddock for this sole purpose.
 
BSL said:
You may be getting confused with endurance riding. Stop off cool downs??
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Agree, I thought that advice related to hosing off a horse in order to cool it down, not just get the sweat marks off.
I've also seen somewhere that this advice relates to hot countries (e.g. Australia, America Deep South etc etc) where hot means hot. Coz let's face it, hot in the UK isn't actually that hot by world standards.
 
Turning out after exercise is always better for the horse regardless of the weather. That's why we have rugs for times when it isn't even sunny!
 
When I first bought my horse she wasn't accustomed to being brushed, her entire grooming routine prior consisted of a good hosing down after being worked in the sulky and turned out directly :) we still do this in summer, it gives her amazing relief from the horseflies and the midges.
 
Wash, scrape down and fly spray before turning out in this weather. If I washed and turned out without scraping down the flies would be a problem.
 
I have no opinion on this, I am only trying to explain the physics behind the phenomenon.

Liquid water has a high heat capacity, i.e. it takes a relatively high amount of energy to raise the temperature. This energy will come from the surrounding environment, predominately the horse in this case.
Water has an even higher latent heat of vaporisation, i.e. it takes even more energy to evaporate the liquid water.
This results in a cooling effect both by the horse's body warming the water and then more so from letting the horse dry. The difference is similar to that of dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures (one way humidity is calculated), where the wet bulb temperature is always lower than the dry bulb. Even on a humid day when drying will be slower, the presence of water to evaporate will facilitate in cooling.

When you have an overheated, rather than hot, horse as per the quote given, I believe the aim would be to reduce the temperature as soon as possible. In this case you would remove the warm water and replace with more cool water as the evaporation process takes too long. A layer of warm water would indeed act as insulation to any additional cool water (assuming no mixing which seems unlikely given the nature of splashing water on a horse). Fwiw I'd just hose continuously until they were cool enough as the flowrate and pressure of water from a standard hose would be enough to force mixing and continual cooling.

'To cool an overheated horse (rectal temperature exceeding 103°F), spray or sponge the horse's head, back, neck, rump, and legs with cool water and immediately scrape the water off, repeating continuously until the horse is cool (Figure 2). This is an effective cooling method because heat is transferred from the horse's muscles and skin to the water, which is then removed to cool the horse. It is critical to scrape the warmed water off immediately, or the water may serve as insulation and might actually increase the horse's body temperature.'
 
js1006 said:
I have no opinion on this, I am only trying to explain the physics behind the phenomenon.

Liquid water has a high heat capacity, i.e. it takes a relatively high amount of energy to raise the temperature. This energy will come from the surrounding environment, predominately the horse in this case.
Water has an even higher latent heat of vaporisation, i.e. it takes even more energy to evaporate the liquid water.
This results in a cooling effect both by the horse's body warming the water and then more so from letting the horse dry. The difference is similar to that of dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures (one way humidity is calculated), where the wet bulb temperature is always lower than the dry bulb. Even on a humid day when drying will be slower, the presence of water to evaporate will facilitate in cooling.

When you have an overheated, rather than hot, horse as per the quote given, I believe the aim would be to reduce the temperature as soon as possible. In this case you would remove the warm water and replace with more cool water as the evaporation process takes too long. A layer of warm water would indeed act as insulation to any additional cool water (assuming no mixing which seems unlikely given the nature of splashing water on a horse). Fwiw I'd just hose continuously until they were cool enough as the flowrate and pressure of water from a standard hose would be enough to force mixing and continual cooling.

'To cool an overheated horse (rectal temperature exceeding 103°F), spray or sponge the horse's head, back, neck, rump, and legs with cool water and immediately scrape the water off, repeating continuously until the horse is cool (Figure 2). This is an effective cooling method because heat is transferred from the horse's muscles and skin to the water, which is then removed to cool the horse. It is critical to scrape the warmed water off immediately, or the water may serve as insulation and might actually increase the horse's body temperature.'
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Agree with everything.
The only thing I would debate is the need to scrape when aggressively cooling a hyperthermic horse. This was certainly the old veterinary advice, dating back to I believe the Atlanta Olympics. Newer school of thought is that the time it takes to scrape is counter productive and the time would better be spent applying fresh cold water. That said most seem to still scrape then reapply water.

Now in day to day life, bog standard hot horse in average U.K. Temperatures it matters not a jot. Scrape or don't scrape. Neither is harmful.
 
My neighbour recently said to me that my ponies had eaten all their grass, I suppose giving me a nudge to give them some more. I said the reason why they have 'no' grass is they are eating it and pointed at the other side of the electric tape where the grass is a foot long.
People just do not see the whole picture.
You only have to see the ponies when it rains rolling in the mud patches to see how much they love it. There is a foal on youtube wallowing in a mud puddle, bliss.
 
The water may serve as insulation and might actually increase the horse's body temperature.
I have always been taught to let a horse dry off in the shade for this reason :)
 
Now in day to day life, bog standard hot horse in average U.K. Temperatures it matters not a jot. Scrape or don't scrape. Neither is harmful.
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Exactly. The guidance selectively quoted by others is for a very overheated horse in a hot climate at risk of collapsing if the core temperature is not rapidly cooled. Not for turning a sweaty horse out after a bath.
 
sky1000 said:
I have no answer to this thread as to whether you should turn a horse out wet, but I do know that people are prone to making random comments with no knowledge behind them. I have ridden a horse down a high street at walk with me in fancy dress and heard 'oh that can't be good for them'. I have seen a notice saying 'please do not feed these ponies' and people feeding them because it was only grass or not much.
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We had a gentleman comment that our 'mounts look very tired'. I thought he was joking but no. I couldn't help chuckling as we'd only been going for about 10 minutes and I can confirm that they were super chilled out, plodding along on the buckle, not tired! ;)

I'm another who has no problem turning out a wet horse. If I have a scraper handy then I scrape, but on an early summer day in England I don't see a problem with not scraping either. :)
 
It's not something I do, if they are hosed off, they are scraped off and left to stand in the shade or stable until dried off a little. No reason other than it's what I was always told (back in the 80s) and it's just what I continue to do.

Lady on yard often hoses and turns out, doesn't seem to cause hers any problems.
 
Horse a bit sweaty after lesson or hack: Cold water hose, scrape off, turnout, watch horse roll in dirt

Horse very hot after lesson or hack: Cold water hose focusing on large muscle groups until horse is cooled, scrape off, turn out, watch horse roll in dirt, feed electrolytes with dinner.

Horses cool much quicker if they are wet and standing outside in a breeze rather than in an enclosed stable.

In the UK, unless you are working very intensively (high level endurance, racing, high level eventing) you are unlikely to overheat your horse enough to be worried about surface water being an insulator, the air temperature just doesn't get warm enough.
 
The showjumpers I looked after were always turned out wet in the summer if it wasn't too cold, never did them any harm. I would generally scrape them off but that was just habit. Most horses get rid of excess moisture fairly quickly after being washed anyway - their first instinct is generally to have a good shake, then get down for a roll. As others have said, I think the advice quoted is for cooling horses who have overheated, rather than for your average horse who has got a bit hot, then cooled down while walking off and then had a wash to get rid of the sweat. I'd assume few of us are riding our horses to the point of overheating regularly, if ever. Even the showjumpers I worked with would very, very rarely come back from exercise incredibly hot - this is the UK, after all. On occasion, if they had had a long session on a hot day (rare) and had come back very hot and tired, they wouldn't be turned out until we were certain they were cool and happy (and heart rate back to normal), but that didn't particularly necessitate waiting for them to dry. The way myself, my boss and everyone I worked with saw it, the best thing for the horse's welfare was to go out in the field after exercise, if at all possible.
 
Casey76 said:
Horse a bit sweaty after lesson or hack: Cold water hose, scrape off, turnout, watch horse roll in dirt

Horse very hot after lesson or hack: Cold water hose focusing on large muscle groups until horse is cooled, scrape off, turn out, watch horse roll in dirt, feed electrolytes with dinner.

Horses cool much quicker if they are wet and standing outside in a breeze rather than in an enclosed stable.

In the UK, unless you are working very intensively (high level endurance, racing, high level eventing) you are unlikely to overheat your horse enough to be worried about surface water being an insulator, the air temperature just doesn't get warm enough.
Click to expand...

That's good to know :) thanks!
 
Casey76 said:
Horse a bit sweaty after lesson or hack: Cold water hose, scrape off, turnout, watch horse roll in dirt

Horse very hot after lesson or hack: Cold water hose focusing on large muscle groups until horse is cooled, scrape off, turn out, watch horse roll in dirt, feed electrolytes with dinner.

Horses cool much quicker if they are wet and standing outside in a breeze rather than in an enclosed stable.

In the UK, unless you are working very intensively (high level endurance, racing, high level eventing) you are unlikely to overheat your horse enough to be worried about surface water being an insulator, the air temperature just doesn't get warm enough.
Click to expand...

same here :)
It's easy to get carried away with things like this!
I like to get mine outside and mooching about stretching tired muscles asap if they have worked hard.
 
Monty gets turned out wet because he can be trusted. Archie has to wait until he's dry (unless we're expecting rain soon) because I've never known a horse manage to get so filthy rolling in the dirt when he's wet. I'm not talking normal rolling here, he'd put a hippo to shame. He gets turned out in the school for 10 minutes for a roll though, because I feel mean denying him that pleasure. I just don't want him doing it somewhere he can get absolutely filthy!
 
Horsekaren said:
The water may serve as insulation and might actually increase the horse's body temperature.
I have always been taught to let a horse dry off in the shade for this reason :)
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I'll remember this when I need a cup of tea at the yard...
 
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tallyho! said:
I'll remember this when I need a cup of tea at the yard...
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You're meant to drink hot drinks in warm/hot temps to raise your inner temperature, rather than drinking cold ones.

I'm another not to turn out dripping/soaking wet - have always scraped off, left to dry for a bit and brushed before turning out.
 
I can't say I'd ever bath/ wash off without scraping after, but after scraping I wouldn't hesitate to put straight in the field. I don't normally because I'm normally doing something with them to then allow drying time (plaiting, pulling manes etc.), but it wouldn't be something I'd actively avoid I don't think.

My horses fortunately for them have never been worked to the point they need repeated water, scraping, water, however have always understood the reasoning behind the method.
 
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