How hot is too hot to ride?

How hot is too hot to ride for you and your horse? Do you ride through dry heat?.

It's supposed to be 95 here tomorrow and I normally won't do more than a walk and trot when it's really hot out but, where does everyone draw the line at?

For me, it's less about the actual temperature and more about the humidity. Here it was 91 with a heat index of 101 and a dew point of 76. That tells me that humidity is very high and, in my mind, it's not safe to work a horse hard. In areas where it's a drier heat, it may be easier to work a horse, but I don't know since I live in Ohio. I don't typically ride if it's above 90 with a humidity of 70% or more. Once it's above 70% and hot, it becomes unsafe for me to ride, and I don't want to put a horse through that. That's my thought on it.

Yeah I normally watch the humidity. It's been really bad here lately, I feel like we are in a drought.

It's usually >80 humidity around my place and 90 degrees. It's hard to have a cut off when the conditions are like that most of the time. In the very late afternoon --an hour before sunset-- the temperature will go down to about 85. There is also a window of lower 80s during the wee hours of the morning. However, I can't make it out to ride at 6:00 am, so I must ride in the heat of the day.

Typically, I'll wait until it's 93 or so before I head out in the afternoons and ride until dark. If it's hotter than that, nothing I can do about it but stay in the shade.

My horses are well conditioned and use to the heat, however. I would NEVER ride a horse that wasn't fit or was unused to the heat in that kind of weather.

Where I am, our high heat is usually coupled with humidity. If I break into a sweat just by being outside walking around, I will not ride. Likewise if my horse is sweating just standing out in the pasture.
I would not have a problem doing a leisurely ride in a dry heat, if there is some cover from extended sun duration. For example, I would ride in the woods where there is lots of shade.
Hm, maybe a perfect day for a beach ride/swim! :)

I don't know, sometimes I wonder if a dry heat isn't worse for the horse. We are the exact opposite of most of you guys, normal 100+ temps in the summer and 25% humidity on a humid day . I've noticed that when a horse sweats in conditions like that, the sweat dries very quickly and I wonder if they are getting any cooling off done before it evaporates.

Anyway, I normally ride so long as I am comfortable (if it's too hot for me, then it's too hot for the horse). I'll normally avoid above 110 or below 5% humidity. That's just too hard on lungs and nasal passages. When it's really hot, I just keep a close eye on them and make sure that they are getting enough to drink. I've yet to have one have a heat related problem.

I agree, I don't like it if my horse is standing in his paddock sweating and if that's the case he gets a bath but, I won't ride if I can't breath or break a sweat. I haven't rode in the past couple of weeks because, it's been so hot. I usually wait until late in the afternoon (around 6 or 7) to ride and he gets a bath afterwards if he's really sweaty.

I wish there was a beach or a lake around our area, that'd be real nice :)

Ha ha smrobs, it's like the grass is always greener, eh?
Smrobs: "It's over 110 degrees, too hot to ride"
Me: "Yeah, well at least it's a dry heat. Over here the temp is only 90, but with the humidity it FEELS like 130, so we have it way worse"
Smrobs: ? "Well..."
Me: At least in a dry heat you can breathe!"
Smrobs: "I don't think you know what you're talking about.."
Me :"You guys have it so easy in Texas. It never rains there!"
Smrobs: "It's called drought!"
Me: "Yeah, it sucks here because it is muddy!"
Smrobs:

What do you think.... Too much time on my hands?? Lol

I pretty much always ride no matter how hot/humid. I think you really have to take it from your horse and what they are used to and their level of condition. I live in wisconsin and its really humid here, the past week we've had heat index of 104 ! That's crazy, because it never gets that hot here ! I rode all the horses and they were fine.

I try to ride early in the morning, or when the sun has started to set, when it is cooler out.