As summer temperatures soar, particularly in regions like Virginia where heatwaves are a recurring challenge, adapting equestrian training routines becomes paramount. This guide offers practical strategies for horse owners and riders to manage their training effectively, ensuring the well-being of their equine partners while making productive use of the warmer months. The focus is on smart training, prioritizing horse welfare and rider comfort during periods of extreme heat.
Summer Training Adjustments for Equine Well-being
Managing horses during high temperatures requires a proactive approach that goes beyond simply acknowledging the heat. Key strategies include adjusting turnout schedules, implementing cooling measures, and utilizing specialized feed supplements.
- Night Turnout: To mitigate the stress of bugs and intense sun, horses can be kept on night turnout. This allows them to spend their time outdoors during cooler evening and morning hours, while still benefiting from fresh air and pasture.
- Cooling Measures: Fans are essential in the stable to maintain air circulation and keep horses comfortable. Regular baths can also help dissipate heat from the body.
- Herbal Sprays: Products like Uckele’s Pure & Simple Summer Spray, an herbal blend with apple cider vinegar, can help alleviate summer skin itchiness caused by insect bites and heat.
- Fly Control Feed: Incorporating supplements such as Tribute Equine Nutrition’s Essential K with Fly Control into the horses’ diet can significantly reduce the fly population by making manure inhospitable to larvae. This has proven to be a highly effective farm-wide strategy.
Horses enjoying turnout in a field
Strategic Show Season Planning
The dressage show season often requires a strategic pause during the peak of summer. Understanding when and where to compete can help manage both horse and rider fatigue.
- Seasonal Shows: Competitions are often concentrated in cooler months, such as April, May, and June in Virginia. While a mid-July show might occur, its location at higher elevations, like the Virginia Horse Center, can offer a slight reprieve.
- Summer Hiatus: Following the early summer shows, a break of five to six weeks allows horses to recuperate in the heat before the regional championships in late August. This downtime is crucial for preventing burnout and maintaining enthusiasm.
Pivoting Training Regimen with Horsemanship Focus
Summer’s heat provides an ideal opportunity to focus on foundational horsemanship skills, which can be practiced at lower gaits and are less physically demanding. Collaborating with trainers specializing in different disciplines can offer fresh perspectives.
- Horsemanship Clinics: Engaging with trainers from disciplines like eventing or general horsemanship can introduce new approaches to dressage challenges. Sessions might cover topics such as relaxation of the topline, self-carriage, responsiveness to aids, and managing spooking. These exercises can be effectively performed at the halt, walk, and trot.
- Mounting Blocks and Relaxation: Practical skills like using mounting blocks and focusing on a relaxed topline are beneficial and can be incorporated into daily routines.
In-Saddle Adjustments for Summer Rides
Riding during the summer months can be adapted to incorporate specific skill-building exercises that are less strenuous and can be completed in shorter durations.
- Double Bridle Introduction: Introducing the double bridle can be a leisurely summer project, allowing horses to acclimate to the additional rein by “farting around” with the curb rein for several rides without pressure.
- Short-Duration Exercises: Flying changes and half-steps are well-suited for summer practice, as they typically require only a few successful repetitions. For instance, half-steps can be practiced until any approximation is achieved, and changes are considered complete after one clean effort in each direction, potentially resulting in very short rides.
- Focus on Bend and Self-Carriage: Developing bend and self-carriage at the walk is achievable and beneficial. Exercises like halts, rein-backs, and walk pirouettes, which may be overlooked during cooler seasons, are excellent focuses for summer training.
- Rider Position and Stability: Riders can utilize the summer to improve their position by riding without stirrups or using training aids to maintain correct hand and leg placement. Building muscle memory at lower gaits in shorter sessions supports this goal.
- Interval Training: For horses that need to maintain peak condition for competitions or sales, interval training offers an efficient way to build cardiovascular and muscular fitness.
Embracing Downtime and Managing Equine Temperaments
The summer break, while beneficial, can sometimes be met with resistance from horses accustomed to consistent work. Acknowledging and managing this requires patience and a focus on the long-term advantages of rest.
- Horse’s Enjoyment of Downtime: Some horses genuinely relish extended periods of rest and may express their displeasure upon the return of cooler weather and more rigorous training.
- Workaholic Rider’s Perspective: Riders, particularly those with a driven personality, may find it challenging to embrace downtime. Reminding oneself that horses ultimately benefit from this period of rest is essential. The cooler temperatures and renewed ambitions in the fall make the summer break a more palatable prospect.
Ultimately, adapting to summer heat is about working smarter, not harder. By implementing these strategies, horse owners and riders can ensure their equine partners remain healthy, comfortable, and engaged throughout the hottest months of the year.
Lauren Sprieser is a USDF gold, silver and bronze medalist with distinction making horses and riders to FEI from her farm in Marshall, Virginia. She’s currently developing The Elvis Syndicate’s C. Cadeau, as well as her own string of young horses, with hopes of one day representing the United States in team competition. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
