8 Woes of Summer Horse Ownership If You Live In The Sou
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8 Woes of Summer Horse Ownership If You Live In The South

Summer is a vicious cycle of heat and rain and hoof problems.

Molly Joiner
Jul 02, 2019
Auburn University
7
8 Woes of Summer Horse Ownership If You Live In The South
Molly Joiner

Owning horses is a joy like no other. It's also one of the most stressful things you will ever decide to do. Horses are basically 1100 pound dogs that injure themselves for no reason. That's it. That's horse ownership in a nutshell. While every season has its own list of horse-ownership trials, summer is one of those *special* seasons where things can go south real quick. And no, I'm not talking about the temperature, cause honey down here, it gets steamy and stays steamy til about mid-October.

1. Rain rot

There's something about extremely high levels of humidity down here that makes rain rot a prime offender in the summer. Gotta love a good skin infection to really get your summer going strong.

2. The Grime.

Summer is hot, we know this to be law down here, but have you ever brushed down a horse that was absolutely disgusting and found that every particle of dried sweat, dirt, and loose hairs has begun to cling to your own sweaty body and now you have gotten a whole shade darker. Yeah, it kind of makes you just want to jump in the water trough after a while.

3. Soft Hooves.

With the added humidity, random rain storms and overall hot weather, you can bet your horse's hooves will become soft making for tender feet and just begging for an abcess. Joy to the Freakin World.

4. Riding times are narrow windows.

You can either ride in the early morning or late evening. Any rides after 10am or before 5pm are dangerous to your health and your horse's. Unless of course you're lucky enough to have a covered arena or shaded trails in which case the mosquitos and deer flies will pick you clean.

5. Musty saddle pads.

The smell that inevitably fills your tack rooms and horse trailers is one that causes even the strongest-stomached riders to decide riding bareback all summer is a good idea. Sweaty saddle pads in enclosed spaces is simply not a good mix.

6. Hats/Helmets

Here's a fun idea, let's schedule the majority of rodeos, horse shows, and jackpots for summertime. Let's make things mid day, and let's require a hat or helmet so everyone get the weird head sweats and feels like their brain is going to fry.

7. Ponds/ Creeks/ Lakes...

There's always the danger on trail rides that your horse is gonna lay down in one of the above-mentioned bodies of water and ruin your tack. I understand it's hot, but please don't roll with me, man! Not cool!

8. Everyone has free time and everyone wants to ride your horses.

Let's face it, riding horses is cool, we know this. It's fun and it makes awesome photos for the gram, but it's kind of hard to put in so much work, so much love, time and patience into caring for these animals and bettering your skills as a rider and then be expected to take everyone you know on a trail ride and worry that they're going to get hurt, or ruin all your training.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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