Oh, Eeyore. You are teaching me all sorts of things that I never realized I needed to learn.
Sweat.
Gemmie never really sweated that much. Part of it was due to her desert breeding but mostly it was due to her insane innate athleticism. I don’t think I ever pushed her anywhere near her max even during the 100 we did.
Eeyore sweats when it gets above 50 and he even thinks about working. He sweats when he eats. Apparently that is strenuous activity. Where I could work Gem on a 20 mile technical and fast conditioning ride in August pushing 100F with only a slight shimmer of sweat, a simple walk warm up at 60 degrees and the poor guy is lathered.
He gets natural electrolytes in his grazing plus what is included in his ration balancer and has free access to a mineral block and clean cold water all day. He chomps the block on the regular and is great at tanking up on water.
I’m not really concerned about dehydration for him but darn is he a sweaty mess constantly.
What I am concerned about is if I need to be adding my home made elytes on the daily in summer or perhaps maybe use syringes after a ride? I’m not sure because I barely rode him last summer though when I did he seemed fine. Riding a beast that has white lather everywhere at the walk is new to me and I’m not quite sure if it is something I need to stress over or not. He has a really thin hair coat and even over the winter he barely grew in a winter one. He still got sweaty. I think he has his own persona fire burning from within to keep him warm. I’m not sure a clip would do much good plus I don’t need him to get sun burned. I already have to sun tan lotion up his man bits and nose daily.
I’m also a bit concerned about my tack and…gasp…might have to splurge on a few more saddle pads to avoid nasty salt encrusted pads. He sweats that much even now when it is 65 with a cool breeze and no humidity. I shudder to think what he will be like in the heat of summer. I’m thinking I’ll also need to clean my tack a lot more often.
So my question for you all….if you have a super sweaty beast filled with the internal fire of Hades, how do you manage it? Do you do more than clean water and a mineral block? Syringe elytes after a ride? Add them to the feed daily in the summer? Any tips for getting the salt out of pads and off leather goods? I’m already missing my perfectly clean, dry Princess of a mare.
The Roaming Rider 
Tricia has always been a sweat beast. (Maybe it’s the Zippo side?) She can stand in the field and sweat on a warm day. It’s just her. I feed Stress Dex all year long. Along with a salt block in her stall, and a mineral block in the field, and whatever elyte concoction Purina puts in Senior. She tends to be slightly less sweaty. As for coat maintenance, we usually hose off and may use one of the sprayer style bath things-Mane and Tail has one you attach to the hose. I’ll spray down the pad at that point too, and usually keep a couple in rotation. The waffle weave air flo pads are amazing in the summer, and my next go to is a natural fiber type built pad. Cotton and/or sheepskin. It seems crazy, but the sheepskin really works, even if it needs to be washed more often (every 3 rides-ish).
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Stan lives the sweaty life. I’ve never babied him along other than hosing him down after rides in the summer and he’s been happy as a clam. I don’t think he knows any other way to be and is unbothered as a result.
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Last summer he seemed to do fine but I also didn’t do much with him. It seems to be an orange QH thing to glow from within with all the fire
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Bobby had lava as blood. He’d blink too hard and burst into a lather. I never gave him electrolytes in his life, and he drank plenty but wasn’t guzzling water down on the daily even in high summer heat. He seemed to handle it fine on his own, and I always had super clean tack because I had to wash the sweat off of everything after every ride. So, bonus? 😛
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Not promising for my lifestyle of minimal maintenance but that life with H’Appy in a nut shell
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The Quarter horse I owned in Florida was a lathery sweat monster. His winter coat was super fine like your H’Appy’s but he received a full body clip in the winter and I only blanketed him at night with a fleece cooler on the rare occasion it was in the 40s or below. (He was stalled.) The body clip minimized excessive sweating in the winter. I did not elyte him in the wintertime because he never lathered thanks to the body clip. He did have access to a salt block and hay 24/7. He was ridden regularly, 3-5 times/week. from 30 to 90 min/session (strictly timed). During the warm months my rule of thumb was that if he was working for more than 45 min + broke into a lather (sometimes we’d just putz on the trails at a walk for a couple of hours, which did not lead to excessive sweating) I would elyte him in the form of one serving of electrolytes added to his post-workout mash. He did great with this. I did hose him down after every ride though.
I will admit that my stockpile of thin cotton saddle pads started with him: he’d wear a dry one every ride. With the South FL summer humidity it could take upwards of 3 days for a saddle pad to dry out if it was hanging in the tack room. I’d untack him and lay the saddle pad out flat in direct sunlight to dry out as much as possible while I hosed him down and fed him. That would sometimes help to dry them out significantly. I was still washing saddle pads ~ 1x/week.
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Yeah I’m going to need more than one saddle pad. With the humidity in the summer it will never dry in time.
That’s a good rule of thumb. I only ever used elytes with Gem during competition so I’ll need to keep an eye on him and see how he does
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ugh charlie is a sweaty beasty too, and he will also get the white lathery emotional sweats too haha…. that’s part of why i clip him the way i do in the winter, to reduce some of the neck sweats. in the summer he just gets sponged or hosed after every ride, plus elytes. not much else to be done for it tho!
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He has such a thin coat in the winter that he did pretty well even in work this time through. If we amp it up any more I’ll probably do a small clip of some sort.
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Amber sweats so much. I had to clip her last winter because it was just below 60 degrees and with her winter fur she would just SWEAT. And I wasn’t even working her. So I feel you lol. After reading all the comments I feel like it’s a Quarter Horse thing haha! (Even though H’Appy is an Appy, from his build I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some foundation QH blood in him) I did feed Amber electrolytes and pure magnesium pellets when she was in heavy work during the summer. She would sweat so much, and when I did some research, articles mentioned that if horses sweat enough they can end up sweating out magnesium, and that is the mineral that allows muscles to relax/release, and isn’t usually in electrolytes – or at least, not in the quantity potentially needed to replenish. It seemed to help her, and then I took her off of it once it got cooler and she didn’t sweat as badly. I have a review on that if you want to read it.
As for saddle pads, I have a review for the Roma pads that are moisture wicking, and I love them. Amber does too. They dry out in like 5 minutes (maybe more for you since you have way more humidity than we do lol). I reviewed them too if you’d like to look at them. For tack, I’ve just had a cloth handy, gotten it damp with the hose and wiped off the worst areas of sweat. Then I clean the tack once a month. That method seemed to work for me 🙂
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Thank you I’ll look for your reviews!
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This summer will be the first full summer with Appy pony and judging by winter he will be a sweaty mess. He got bib clipped this winter so he didnt die under saddle, poor shaggy beast. Helped tons.
Holly got herself pretty sweaty in summer, she was rinsed daily, occasionally some gentle shampoo because she stank. I have about 5 pads to rotate, just the cheaper tuff rider/ smartpak type. They wick sweat pretty well and easier to wash. She got ‘lytes if it was a really hot day +hard ride. Also she had different colored buckets along with auto waterer (because the well occasionally ran too low) and she preferred the bright pink one over the nice blue. Dang picky horses lol.
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Wow, picky mare! I wouldn’t mind the sweat except he is so disgusting about it. He rolls in the dirt all the time and is filthy. It drives me crazy
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Mineral and salt licks are designed for cattle who have scratchy tongues. They are not meant for horses, even licking for hrs they can not get even remotely enough into them (learned this in my equine nutrition certification). I would switch them out and start feeding loose salt along with loose minerals.
Also, clipping might be a good option to consider.
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That is interesting. I’ve not heard that before and ours have always kicked and chewed theirs down to nothing in the stalls where weather can’t get to it. I’ll have to ask my vet about that.
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They still use it, but it doesn’t actually get into their system like it should. Makes total sense since they are meant for cows lol
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I’ve also heard about the loose salt vs blocked salt. They do lick them but can get the correct amount of salt that they need if it’s loose bc of their smooth tongues. Salt blocks have been the staple for ages but as we learn more about horses we improve the way of care 🙂 I five my guys loose salt and they seem to enjoy it. You can buy loose Himalayan salt at tractor supply.
Also a thing I learned in pony club is always have a regular salt block for your horse not just a mineral block. That way they can choose which one they need and you aren’t loading them up with minerals if they just need a lot of salt.
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Interesting. I’m going to pick the brain of my vet plus Dusty has a ton of equine vet friends from vet school that I will ask around about that.
I have my own recipe for electrolytes from endurance that works well. The issue with only using salt is that it really needs to be properly balanced with potassium and sometimes even calcium to allow the water to be useful to the horse and not just sit in the stomach. I learned that the hard way at an endurance ride.
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I have just hosed off and made sure that they had access to water and salt. At a competition I might but otherwise no. Unless he shows signs of dehydration (skin pinch test).
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He drinks enough that I’m not worried about dehydration. He is so disgusting though
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Poor sweaty beast! I have to elyte my QH pretty regularly if he is working when it is hot. He isn’t particularly sweatier than normal, but is a wilting flower in any heat (like his owner). He drinks well, but really seems to need extra salt/minerals regularly in warmer weather.
Interesting about the salt/mineral blocks – I didn’t know they couldn’t get enough! Seems like they spend enough time licking the things that they should!
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I’m going to keep a close eye on him this spring and summer and see if he needs a free through electrolyte
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I like when they sweat, I’d never want to deal with anhidrosis. My horses have always been really good sweaters, I wouldn’t overkill on the electrolytes though – free choice minerals, electrolytes in the feed, that’s about it. As far as your tack, just clean it regularly and remember to oil it about twice a year and you should be fine.
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I used to use the amount of sweat as a good indicator of work load for Gem. With H’Appy, he sweats even thinking about work so it is taking me some time to adjust my thoughts on when enough is enough for him. Little changes I never even thought about when getting a new horse
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