How's everyone coping with the heat?

Jessey

Jessey

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Dec 20, 2004
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Suffolk, UK
And the horses of course?

I like hot weather but 3 days in a row I've ended up dripping from doing jobs in it, it's funny Hank and Niko are 1.5 miles from Jess and Dan and last night doing H&N I was melting, dripping head to toe, just from sponging them down and feeding them, went back to J&D and it was perfect and comfortable doing exactly the same plus lugging haynet's out and poo picking 🤷‍♀️

Niko was pretty sweaty yesterday, I can't take his fly rug off tho as the horse flies are still brutal. Neither Hank or Dan have been bothered. Jess breathing has got worse again, but improves without her fly rug (no horseflies there) and when sponged down, so it's definitely changed by heat.
 
In a word - badly. I hate it, I know I accliimitise eventually but the sudden change leaves me too hot, headachy, and tired, plus I feel ill if I'm out in it for long, This means I'm struggling to ride because there are roofers working at the yard at the moment and so by the time they've finished for the day it's far too hot for me.

Luka us coping just fine though. In typical horse fashion he's ignoring the shade in favour of baking in the sun and is playing in the field a lot too. The only downside is that the playing means his fly rug has rubbed his shoulders so 've had o take that off.
 
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carthorse said:
In a word - badly. I hate it, I know I accliimitise eventually but the sudden change leaves me too hot, headachy, and tired, plus I feel ill if I'm out in it for long, This means I'm struggling to ride because there are roofers working at the yard at the moment and so by the time they've finished for the day it's far too hot for me.

Luka us coping just fine though. In typical horse fashion he's ignoring the shade in favour of baking in the sun and is playing in the field a lot too. The only downside is that the playing means his fly rug has rubbed his shoulders so 've had o take that off.
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Yeah the sudden change has made it harder for sure.

Niko's has rubbed one shoulder and the opposite hamstring weirdly, Having just bought him 2 new fly sheets I think he's having a growth spurt and the next one will be a size up, I hope they will last this season but who knows
 
I like it personally although it’s a bit too humid for me I prefer dry heat.
Belle couldn’t really care less it seems although I’m not riding her right now so she’s free to mooch around her track and has plenty of shade if she wants it. The yard we’re on has less mozzies and little black bites buggers than anywhere I’ve ever been but the horseflies 😱 they don’t seem to bother Belle but for some reason I’m a choice dinner for them, to be fair I don’t really react much to them unlike mozzies so apart from looking like a pin cushion it’s not so bad.
My friends mare is suffering badly though, she has SI and can’t be left un rugged which means she’s getting really sweaty, literally dripping, can’t be kept in or she rubs herself raw 🙁
 
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Kite_Rider said:
I like it personally although it’s a bit too humid for me I prefer dry heat.
Belle couldn’t really care less it seems although I’m not riding her right now so she’s free to mooch around her track and has plenty of shade if she wants it. The yard we’re on has less mozzies and little black bites buggers than anywhere I’ve ever been but the horseflies 😱 they don’t seem to bother Belle but for some reason I’m a choice dinner for them, to be fair I don’t really react much to them unlike mozzies so apart from looking like a pin cushion it’s not so bad.
My friends mare is suffering badly though, she has SI and can’t be left un rugged which means she’s getting really sweaty, literally dripping, can’t be kept in or she rubs herself raw 🙁
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My pocket looks like a chemist, I'm really allergic to horseflies so I have one topical antihistamine, one oral, some AfterBite and paracetamol because the quicker I get it all, the less of a reaction I have!
 
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It's a bit too sticky for me, but I'm not going to seriously complain, because I was moaning about the rain not that long ago!
 
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Too hot for Janey! The older I get, the less I'm able to cope, so I'm hiding indoors with all my curtains pulled. Dom's the same as me... working out in the gardens all day is wiping him out. Anything over 23° and I get tetchy 😂 I have a fab beside the bed which bless on me all night and a friend put me on to covering all the skylight windows upstairs with tin foil to reflect the sunlight (the whole top floor is roof space, so all the windows face the sky) and that's made a HUGE difference to the heat up there .... 12 years we've been here and I've only just learned that trick!! 🤦 We have a fan moving air around the lounge - our 12yo black lab isn't coping well either so she's mostly gets the fan on her! I also have a fan on my side of the bed which blows air on me all night. I also have a pack of wet wipes in the fridge and periodically get one to wipe my face and the back of my neck. We only have a small courtyard garden so not big enough for a pool, so I've got a wide, shallow trug out there which I stand in for a few minutes to cool my feet down.

Gracie is coming in daily at the moment but seems to be coping well. Her stable is in a high-roofed airy barn so it's very cool. I lunged her early at the weekend and will probably do the same tomorrow but other than that she's having some time off. Frankly, I just can't bear the thought of pulling on a pair of jods to ride!

She wears a fly rug at night and is currently unmuzzled overnight too but doesn't seem to get too troubled by the flies anyway. I haven't used my zebra-print ride-on fly rug yet this year. She won't wear a fly mask..... well she'll allow me to put it on, but then pull it off as soon as my back's turned, so I assume she'd rather have flies on her face 🙄 My friend's mare is getting bitten to pieces through her fly rug and is covered in angry lumps.... she must have a more attractive scent than my piggy 🤣

I got bitten on my arm by a horse-fly last week in the barn but I felt it nip so it didn't get to feast. I immediately put the kettle on and hot-spooned the area and it didn't amount to anything.... it just itched mildly for a couple of days, so I continued intermittently with the heat, which worked a treat. I've not seen many around, tbh, for which I'm extremely grateful. I've got my baggy clothes and zebra print "MC Hammer" trousers at the yard but I've only bothered to put them on a couple of times.
 
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I am not. Both of us were so miserable last week that I cancelled today. At home, working and drinking lots. I guess the horse will be happier too. It is so hot I am in my nightie and not even going to groom her.
We have brought a fan down but a trick I learned living in the tropics is that it is good to create a through draught.
So open windows and open skylight over the front door. It is mid day and still cool.
 
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I open my house up each morning and get fresh cool air in, then shut all windows and curtains for the day, when I get home in the evening it is much cooler than outside. Have you tried putting frozen water bottles in front of the fan for the dog @domane? it cools the air a bit as it goes buy and can be good for pets (and probably us too) :)
 
There is one in the freezer as I type @Jessey ..... I only remembered this trick late last night 👍

I usually soak a tea towel and put that along her back. That helps. Plus she's not averse to chucking herself in the filthy pond we've got yards from our front door.... I'm sure she only does that because she knows she gets hosed off afterwards (to stop her stinking 🤣)
 
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Too hot! It dosnt seem too bad till you start moving. Robin is wanting in for the afternoon and not keen to go back out till later. His field has no shade tho. Flies not too terrible but as he would rather be in then that’s what I’ll do. He isn’t great being in alone but just now he is quite happy. He will have a few days off now after having his jab which is no bad thing
 
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Kite_Rider said:
I like it personally although it’s a bit too humid for me I prefer dry heat.
Belle couldn’t really care less it seems although I’m not riding her right now so she’s free to mooch around her track and has plenty of shade if she wants it. The yard we’re on has less mozzies and little black bites buggers than anywhere I’ve ever been but the horseflies 😱 they don’t seem to bother Belle but for some reason I’m a choice dinner for them, to be fair I don’t really react much to them unlike mozzies so apart from looking like a pin cushion it’s not so bad.
My friends mare is suffering badly though, she has SI and can’t be left un rugged which means she’s getting really sweaty, literally dripping, can’t be kept in or she rubs herself raw 🙁
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Aw that's a shame for your friend's mare. Mine don't have SI but it was difficult earlier on last week wondering whether to leave Chloe without her fly sheet (which was making her terribly uncomfortable and sweaty) and letting her get attacked. I've never known the horse flies to be so bad up here - and it's not even that hot now! But this morning we flattened half a dozen within the first ten seconds of walking Storm out into the paddocks!
 
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Trewsers said:
Aw that's a shame for your friend's mare. Mine don't have SI but it was difficult earlier on last week wondering whether to leave Chloe without her fly sheet (which was making her terribly uncomfortable and sweaty) and letting her get attacked. I've never known the horse flies to be so bad up here - and it's not even that hot now! But this morning we flattened half a dozen within the first ten seconds of walking Storm out into the paddocks!
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If you've got them up there it must be a bad year for them!
 
Jessey said:
If you've got them up there it must be a bad year for them!
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Yep, they're making our summer a misery so far! We've been here five years just gone - and never ever really had to worry about them until this year. They seem to arrive in droves and then hover and land all at once! I've been bitten a few times too, I'm about to order another After Bite pen!
 
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I manage, though I'm not looking forward to 3 days of cooking from tomorrow onwards!

The horses hate it. They stand in the shelter from about 6:30am until I go over in the evening at about 6pm. They hardly move except to go to their water trough. Yesterday there were 2 poos for the entire 12 hours of the day, they'd rather stand in than eat.
 
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28c here at the moment and thunder rumbling not so far away, I’m really hoping we get a downpour (preferably just after I finish with the horses 🤣)
 
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