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Re: [RC] Heat and conditioning - heidiDo you ride/condition in high temps? Do you have a temperature cut off? Yes, since the only way they can acclimate to working in heat is to go condition in it. Ride slow, ride smart, and use the same cautions you would at a hot ride--lots of water available, lots of sponging, etc. But I always feel better about going to rides in heat if the horses are acclimated to it and have worked in it. If you go to a ride, at what point do you say, it's too hot, not good for the horse? Some horses take heat better than others. Of the two I'm riding now, one takes it well, one doesn't. So knowing your own horse is a factor. And look at the heat index--add the temperature Fahrenheit to the relative humidity. The midwesterners and southeasterners can likely tell you more about the heat index cutoffs, but if memory serves, it pays to get pretty twitchy about things if the index goes much over 160. If you have a dry 104, you can sponge like crazy and it will evaporate well and help cool. If you have 90 and a humidity of 80, you can more or less stew the horse in his own juices, so to speak, and you have to be careful to sponge and then scrape the water off as it warms, and sponge again... Having spent most of my life in relatively arid areas, I don't worry much about riding at 100 degrees as long as there is plenty of water and as long as horse and I are both acclimated to it. But I'm used to areas that have humidity in the teens or single digits when it is that hot. My big question about going to a ride in that sort of heat would be wanting to know that the RM understands the need for water and has planned for its availability. And of course, the big thing--RIDE TO THE WEATHER! Slow down, so you don't get the heat buildup in the first place. Hot weather rides are survival rides. Heidi ============================================================ Many of the endurance riders in our top echelons of competition, now and in the past, exemplify the 'common man' not the hierocracy. It is this possibility, this chance to come to the fore, that makes endurance competition of the Aussie/American type so much more desirable to part of the world. ~ Bob Morris ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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