More than any other time of year, your horse is at the greatest risk of developing heat stress in the summer.

When temperatures are high, it’s best to schedule any demanding physical activity in the morning and late afternoon to avoid overheating.

A horse’s muscles are large, powerful, and capable of generating a ton of heat. Enough to raise its body temperature by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit every minute, in fact.

Add a blistering hot day into the equation, and it’s all too easy for a horse to develop heat stress. If left unchecked, the condition can worsen, leading to irritability, disorientation, coma, or even death.

Luckily, however, the symptoms of heat stress and heat exhaustion in horses aren’t too difficult to spot.

If your horse is showing any of these signs, they may be experiencing heat stress:

Without timely care and management of equine heat stress, heat stroke can develop, which may cause:

Horse Health Care Tips to Prevent, Manage, & Recover From Heat Stress

Here are a few tips to prevent heat stress:

But if, despite your best efforts, your horse still shows signs of heat stress, it’s important to remove them from the heat and start cooling them down as soon as possible.

Kentucky Equine Research recommends the following steps to quickly get the symptoms of heat stress under control:

1. Direct application of ice and cold water to the body, focusing on the head, neck, abdomen, and large muscles
2. Scraping off the water frequently to avoid it warming up on the horse’s body. A team of three people is recommended for faster and more effective cooling—one to apply ice, one to spray with cold hose water, and one to remove the water.
3. If you fear your horse may soon become a danger to itself or others, consider having a veterinarian sedate them.
4. Depending on the severity of the condition, consider having a veterinarian administer anti-inflammatories and intravenous fluids.

To help your horse bounce back from heat stress, you’ll need to give them plenty of time to rest—at least a day or two, in many cases—before jumping back into their normal routine.

In extreme cases, follow your veterinarian’s recommendations for easing your horse back into its regular activities.

During the rest period, make sure they have access to fresh water, cool shade, and electrolytes to replenish what they lost through sweating.

And if you want to help them relax, speed up their recovery, and improve their overall health, you can add BEMER therapy to their daily schedule.

BEMER: Elevating Equine Recovery

Whether your horse is recovering from heat stress or a physical injury, BEMER therapy is scientifically proven to help them return to form faster and more effectively.*

BEMER is powered by a patented pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) signal that passes through your horse’s body to improve local blood flow, and vasomotion, improves functional movement in horses,¹ and speeds up the recovery process after an injury*³

Over time, with just two 5-15-minute sessions a day, these circulatory benefits compound to provide a wide range of life-changing health benefits for your horse.

Less Stress, More “Rest & Digest”

In addition to improving blood flow, BEMER therapy has been shown to promote relaxation and regeneration after exercise and support parasympathetic processes in the body (also known as the rest and digest system).¹

These benefits are perfect for the heat-weary or recovering horse in need of a break from stress and an uplift in mood.