It's always fun to give a horse who loves water a bath in the hot summer time. But have you ever wondered how to properly cool your horse down  when you have given your horse a heavy work out? 

Hot Weather: In hot weather, when cooling your horse, you want to start by sponging your horses lower legs first, but not the haunch.  You want to wait until your horse has significantly cooled down before watering down their haunch muscles, this prevents cramping.  After sponging or spraying water on the lower legs, you then may water down the neck, chest, ears and poll.  You may use lots of water on their stomach and on the insides of their rear legs. Where you see their veins more prominently after a workout is generally a good place to start sponging water on your horse. This will cool your horse down a bit faster. Once your horse has cooled down, you may then put water on their haunch muscles.  Keep in mind that heavily muscled horses as well as dark colored horses take longer to cool down. 

 If possible, you should use room temperature water.  On competitive trails or endurance riding, it's not uncommon to see the competitors fill 5-6 buckets from a spicket and let the buckets stand all day or even overnight so that they have warmer water to use for their horses.  This is a great tip for us!  If you know you will be working your horse hard, you may want to set aside a few  buckets of water in the sunshine so you have warmer water to cool down your horse when you are finished exercising him/her.  Your horse will differently thank you for being so considerate. 

Cold Weather: If the weather is 50 F or less do not use water to cool your horse.  If they are extremely hot, you may sponge a very small amount of water just on their chest and poll only.  But BEWARE You don't want to chill your horse, so be certain you really need water to cool down your horse in cold weather. Either way, it is best to use a fleece or wool cooler and put it on your horse.  Take your horse for a stroll and let them cool down slowly.

Drinking: When giving your horse a drink it is best to give them room temperature water allowing them to take 10 sips in 10 minutes time.  It is okay to allow your horse to drink water out of a stream or a puddle while trail riding, as long as there isn't sand in the bottom of the puddle (which could cause sand colic) or an oily film on the top of the water.