Sweat

Sounds like it might be an equine social issue and not much to do with the effort. It takes a brave horse to work single even on familiar ground. One thing for sure, is once he was cooled down and back in a relaxed state, the sweat didn’t hurt him. If you did the same thing tomorrow he may not sweat at all.

He may be worried about the new horse following him or just being in his space and sweating it…

Glad you all had an enjoyable ride nonetheless, what a cool thing to do on a Sunday afternoon.

We always feel between the horses front legs and if they are not sweaty or wet there we turn em out. If they are wet between the front legs we walk them or allow them to stand in the breezeway until cooled out. This is why it is so important to make them come back to the barn slowly, so they cool out from working on the way back to liberty. If we are in a hurry to cool them we walk them until they dry off. We don’t have a hot walker.

That is a funny thing about horses, they can sweat in different ways. and my statement about sweat not hurting them is not altogether accurate or applicable to all situations. For instance if you see a horse sweating in the belly then they may have a belly ache. So one should listen for gut sounds and keep them moving until the sweating stops, gut sounds return – as an attempt to avoid or prevent colic. A horseman is paying attention (or trying) to all signs the horse is displaying.

Sometimes a nervous horse will sweat around the ears first and not on the whole body, which I have always thought of as a “thinking” sweat, maybe because it is close to their little brains. Some horses will have a little cold sweat where the moisture seems to be on the tips of the hairs and not on the skin, which is also a nervous reaction to something. My oldest gelding (Wedge) will do this anytime he thinks anything different is about to happen.

The best kind of sweat is the ones under the collar and harness from a honest good effort of comfortably moving against resistance.

I would think blanketing is a matter of the weather at the time of turn out or if you are putting them in a stall. If it is windy and cold maybe a blanket can help them dry off before turning out or stalling. The main thing I would think is to be sure that the sweating stops and the animal cools down gradually, back to a normal temperature or at least not sweating any longer, before returning them to their own choice of water, food and activity.

Rod, I would say the sweating is probably nerves. If you look in my thread about dragginf the ground where our new shop is going, the big mare was drenched by the time we were done. My filly had just started sweating . The big mare gets “nerved” up when she thinks she’s gonna work with a newer horse. She calms right down and works good though. As for the blankets, I don’t know. never used ’em. We put ours back in their stalls for a couple hours before we turn them out in the really cold. Otherwise, it’s back to pasture in a half hour.