Have you bathed your horse, then your stable yard friends ask you to go for a ride? Or you bathed for a show but it is cold and overcast, your horse didn’t dry properly, but it’s time for your class? Horses that live out are regularly caught in rainy weather, and sometimes your work/school schedule does not allow enough time for your horse to dry completely before you can ride your lesson.
Sometimes—but the safer answer is to wait until the horse and the saddle area are clean, reasonably dry, and comfortable. A damp coat is not automatically dangerous, but wet hair, grit, sweat, or a dirty pad can increase rubbing and skin irritation. Cold rain is a separate concern: a wet coat loses some of its insulating ability, so do not tack up simply to keep a schedule if the horse is chilled, shivering, lethargic, or unable to dry in a suitable shelter.
We will now look further into the anatomy of the horse’s skin, how the skin reacts to water, and how to dry a wet horse more effectively.
The horse’s skin
The skin is the largest organ, and healthy skin equals a healthy horse. On average, the skin of the horse contributes to 12%-24% of its total body weight. The skin provides important functions for the horse, such as regulating body temperature, acting as a barrier, producing Vitamin D, and many others. The skin has two layers: The epidermis and the Dermis.
- The outermost layer of skin – Epidermis
- The epidermis is a toughened outside layer of cells of your horse’s skin. It is acidic in nature, which is designed to ward off parasites.
- The epidermis contains the protein keratin that makes the epidermis water-resistant.
- The epidermis is a mechanical barrier to outside pathogens.
- Sweat and oil glands, as well as the hair follicles, pass through the Epidermis
- The second layer – Dermis
- The dermis is thicker than the epidermis
- It is where hair follicles and other glands start
- It contains many blood vessels, nerves, and fat cells
- Sweat and sebum production
- Sweat is used to regulate a horse’s body temperature. When a horse gets hot, the sweat glands produce sweat that sits on the epidermis of a horse, which will result in evaporation of the sweat in the sun and serves to cool down the body
- The process of sweating to cool down constitutes 70% of dissipation of body heat or your horse
- Sebum is an oil produced in the sebaceous glands. This oil keeps the skin soft and pliable, as well as keeps the hair shiny and strong.
What tack does to horses’ skin
Ill-fitting tack, dirty and wet numnahs can cause saddle sores on a horse’s body. This can mainly be seen on the wither, shoulders, or girth area. The hair and epidermis can be irritated or chafed by the tack or numnah and can cause lesions to the skin. The affected areas become hot, swollen, and painful, and can deteriorate into a pus producing sore.
Tack, in general, can become quite hot when the horse is working. This will cause sweating under the tack and numnah. A clean and groomed horse should not present many problems when the proper-fitting tack is used while riding.
Continuously having wet legs (hosing down, muddy environment) paired with boots on the horses can cause Greasy Heel/ Mud fever. Greasy Heel is a painful, inflamed condition and often times causes hair loss and scaling.
It normally affects the ‘heels’ or back of the hind limbs in horses, but in more severe cases, it can spread to the front limbs and up to the chest of the horse. This disease is easy to treat and to prevent. It is hard to notice in the early stages as this happens on the epidermis, and it is covered by the hair of the horse.
Numnahs and pads should be clean, dry enough to prevent slipping, free of grit, and appropriate for the saddle fit. Moisture-wicking fabric does not make a poor fit safe, and a soaked pad should be changed or dried before it is used again.
As you can see, should you have proper-fitting clean tack, a good numnah, and proper care of the horse, putting tack on a wet horse is unlikely to result in any problems.
Putting tack on a wet horse
After bathing or exercise, walk the horse until breathing and behavior are back to normal, then remove excess water with a sweat scraper and towel the saddle and girth areas. Do not rely on a universal drying timer: coat type, air temperature, wind, humidity, health, and workload all change the risk. If the horse is cold or the weather is worsening, postpone the ride and provide forage, shelter, and monitoring instead.
When horses have been wet for a while, the skin becomes softer. This increases the risk of rubbing or chafing as well as the chances of bacteria entering the skin. This is increased on an ungroomed horse with ill-fitting tack.
A dirty numnah and girth on top of a damp horse, however, can cause irritation. The dust and debris stick to the wet hair and skin of the horse and rubs the horse while working. Thus one must ensure that the tack is at least clean.
A horse that is only slightly damp may be comfortable for a short, easy ride when the coat is clean and the saddle area is dry enough for stable tack placement. Check the horse immediately after tacking up and again when untacking: look for heat, swelling, hair rubbed backward, tenderness, or a change in way of going. Stop if any of those signs appear.
How to dry a wet horse
Drying a wet horse in the middle of summer is relatively easy, as the heat does the most work for you. In the heat, the water will evaporate off the skin quite quickly, especially in horses with short coats.
However, in winter, or horses with longer hair, drying a wet horse can become quite time-consuming. Your horse can be wet due to many reasons – riding (sweat), standing in the rain, or being bathed.
After an exercise session, giving your horse a proper cooling down walk will help to dry most of the sweat. It is also essential because the horse’s body temperature increases through exercise, and the cooling down session will bring his temperature back down to normal quicker.
Here are some ways that you can dry your horse:
- Use a sweat scraper or any other stiff brush to remove most of the water and spread it out over the coat for quicker drying.
- Using towels to soak up most of the moisture.
- Grooming the hair in many directions – especially upwards – lifts the hair off the skin and allows for quicker drying.
- Using a sweat sheet/cooling rug wicks the water/sweat off of the skin and can soak up a lot of the moisture as well. It is important to note that when the rug is damp/wet, it is best to remove it then.
- If it is cold outside, rather leave your horse in the stable with forage – this produces heat within the body – and dry him/her off as much as possible.
- Using a safe, horse-appropriate dryer where possible; never force a nervous horse to tolerate it and never leave electrical equipment unattended.
- An old method is stuffing the horse’s sheet/cooler with hay/straw. The straw soaks up moisture.
Conclusion
In conclusion, you can put tack on a wet horse. You just need to ensure that the horse’s body temperature is normal (as a wet horse in cold weather is not a good scenario), you have dried the part where the saddle and girth go as best as you can, and that you have proper-fitting tack. Doing this will reduce the chances of injuring or causing harm to your horse.
When to Skip the Ride
Do not ride merely because the calendar says you should. Postpone the ride if the horse is chilled, shivering, dull, painful, heavily sweating, covered in mud or grit under the tack area, or showing skin damage. Seek veterinary advice for persistent soreness, swelling, open lesions, discharge, or suspected rain rot, scratches, or other skin disease.
Related Guides
For more practical horse-care and tack guidance, see:
- What Is a Hackamore and What Is It Used For?
- Why Do Horses Need Blinders?
- What Happens If You Don’t Trim a Horse’s Hooves?
- Can You Ride a Horse with Rain Rot?