Jen Merrill Hunt

“I do think this made a difference as my guy handled last week’s heatwave better than he has handled heat before. He lost barely any body condition (was maybe a little drawn up the last day of the heatwave), when he usually drops a ton of weight and loses topline. I was able to do light lunging sessions on day 4 and 5 of the heatwave in the evenings as he acclimated to the heat. In the past, I would never consider working him in that heat as he’d clearly be uncomfortable and overheated just walking from his paddock. And most importantly – he didn’t have a single colic/discomfort episode and his appetite wasn’t impacted at all. In the past, he would get a crampy belly and go off his food with bad heat swings.

In order, this is him after the first brutal heat day. He isn’t drawn up at all, which is unusual as normally even one extreme heat day would take a toll. Second picture is on day 5 of the heatwave and not the same angle, but you can see he barely lost any condition. And the last is him the day after the heatwave (it was still hot in the 80’s, but not the extreme heat index of 90’s + New England humidity) with full bounce-back of body condition”