It’s been unusually hot and humid this year.

This weather has been dragging on longer than what anyone expected.

I’m thinking that there is a cooler weather front that is on its way………….stalled, but on its way…

In the meantime……………..the horses are really uncomfortable and blowing.

Chantilly (who has breathing issues right now anyway) is huffing, but so is fat-Poppy, who is puffing away…

A couple years ago, I made a tall PVC attachment for one of our hoses………………a tall “T”.

Not real high-tech———but functional.

At that time, I had a timer on it where it would go on & off for fifteen minutes every hour.

 

I’d made it for Bell (my black Percheron).

But poor ole’ Bell’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

 

She liked it when I would lead her under it and it would rain down on her…

She liked it a lot……….a real water-baby…

……………….but then she would wander off and forget about it…

 

 

I would lead her back…………….she would splash & play…

 

 

…………..and then she would wander off…………..never to find it again…..

Poor Bell.

Not a real bright crayon………………but I love her & she loves me…

 

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However…………..Chantilly “gets” it.

She stands underneath the sprinkler until she cools down.

 

Then she wanders off to eat…

 

 

 

When she gets too warm again, she walks right back under the sprinkler until she’s good and wet…

 

 

Then off she goes to get some more hay.

 

 

At the other side of the front yard, I’ve hung a box fan (yes, the Clydes are still front-lawn-ornaments).

Chantilly walks from the sprinkler to get wet, then to the fan to blow dry, and finally to the hay for some munchies…

 

Then back to the sprinkler, then the fan, then the hay…

 

 

After the hose has been going for a while, a big puddle accumulates underneath the PVC rain-machine………………she likes standing, ankle (fetlock) deep, in the mud.

 

A horse’s delicate bony structure that’s inside their hoof can be detrimentally affected, if their core temperature gets too high…

 

 

 

I think Chantilly is self-treating by standing in the cool/wet mud……………messy but effective.

She’s a smart horse.

 

 

 

Poppy has started mimicking her…

 

 

 

Claire (with all of her other health problems) doesn’t have heat-regulating issues…………………she thinks the other two are crazy.

She stays out of the mud and away from the hosing………………..she just stays by the bales of hay with her face buried in the alfalfa.

Claire’s smart too.