NO SWEAT

Summertime, and the livin’ is … hot and sweaty. Your dogs are panting in the shade, and the barn cats are nowhere in sight, but you and your horse are in the ring, working up a serious sweat. After your ride, you grab your own water bottle as you hose down your horse, and when you turn him out, he takes a long drink and visits the salt block before retreating to the shade. After some rest, you’ll both be ready to go again.

This cycle of heating, sweating, cooling and recovery is such an integral part of life that it’s easy to take for granted. But it’s worth remembering how unique your horse really is. Apart from a few primates, humans and horses are just about the only animals who have sweat glands distributed over their entire bodies, and both produce copious amounts of sweat to shed excess body heat.

As with so many other things that we tend to take for granted, the true value of this system becomes evident when it breaks down. Anhidrosis, the partial or complete loss of the ability to sweat, can leave a horse unable to cool himself adequately. In severe cases, anhidrotic horses overheat quickly in hot weather, leaving them at risk for heat stress and potentially fatal heat stroke.

Even when the consequences are less dire, anhidrosis is not pleasant. “I have personally owned horses thatmiserable,” says Martha Mallicote, DVM, DACVIM, of the University of Florida. “It’s not just that you can’t ride them; these poor horses have a daily grind of overheating.”