Dr. Eleanor Kellon, Staff Veterinary Specialist for Uckele Health & Nutrition

Everyone looks forward to the warm weather as the ideal time to ride or work their horse. Most understand the dangers of working the horse under conditions of high heat and humidity. However, the horse can be compromised easily under less than sweltering conditions if you do not know how to correctly protect them.

Horses control their body temperature primarily by sweating. In warmer weather, it becomes crucial to support and maintain proper hydration, whether doing endurance training, events, trail rides, or standing in a field in hot weather.

Hydration isn’t just about water intake or loss

Sweating also causes significant losses of salt. Losing both can lead to devastating consequences. Horses can lose water volume up to 4 gallons per hour, and as much as 4 ounces of salt per hour. The Sodium in salt, which is Sodium Chloride, is absolutely essential for the horse's body to retain normal, healthy levels of water. Regardless of how much water the horse drinks, it will not be able to retain a normal amount of water in the body without adequate Sodium, or salt.

The brain reads Sodium levels in the blood to stimulate the horse to drink when it needs hydration. When water levels drop and Sodium concentration rises, the horse is signaled to drink. However, before any changes in water or Sodium levels in the blood can occur, the body will pull what it needs out of the tissues to maintain blood levels. This can, and does, result in inadequate hydration levels at the tissue level before it shows up in the blood.

Read more: Meeting Increased Summer Hydration Needs

The American Bashkir Curly is one of the most mysterious breeds. It’s the only known hypoallergenic horse. People who are allergic to horses often find that they are not allergic to Curly Horses.

These unique horses with a curly coat are indeed a breed, a very old ancient breed found in art and statuary in early China as far back as 161 AD. There is also historic evidence of their presence in South America and Europe.

How did the Curly horses come to the USA? The answer is still uncertain, but there is proof that the Curlies have been in North America since the early 1800s.

Many Indian pictographs illustrating the "Winter Counts" (number of horses in their herd) have noted that in the winter of 1801-1802 the Sioux had stolen some curly horses from the Crow. This incident placed the tribes at the Standing Rock/Cheyenne River Reservation at the mouth of the Grand River in the Dakotas.

A significant location of the Curlies today has been traced to Indian Reservations in North and South Dakota. Many Curlies then and now have been acquired from the wild horses that roam the open lands of the United States.

Read more: Meet the American Bashkir Curly Horse Breed