In the July/August 2009 issue of John Lyon's Perfect Horse magazine, there is a very informative article on heat stroke in horses by Dr. Eleanor M. Kellon, V M D. You can also go to the Perfect Horse website at www.myhorse.com/perfecthorse for further information.
This article explains the normal range of temperature that a horse has which is between 98.5 and 101 degrees. It gives you insight on how your horse's body cools itself.
It helps you to understand the conduction, convection and evaporation in relation to cooling the horse's body. It's not the hot weather that makes your horse hot in summer, it's the fact that there is less difference between the horse's body temperature and the air. The horses's body generates the same amount of heat during a given level of exercise in winter as in summer, it's just more difficult to transfer that heat to the air when the air is already hot.
There are also three myths about cooling horses that are explained and revealed as true or untrue. Grab an issue of the magazine and then you will have all this valuable information for future reference.
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