How do people who live in the South do it?

[PaulaO]

I’m in northern Illinois which has its fair share of lousy weather. This past Saturday as 85 with 76% humidity and a heat index of 100. Lessons were cancelled and horses out for half a day. It was like breathing through a hot, wet washcloth. I know this weather is common in the South. How do you live with that?

[Ponichiwa]

Gulf coast Texas over here. The last month has been > 95F, 60-90% humidity. There's a reason Houston is the most air-conditioned city in the world, and it's that it's miserable outside for 4 months of the year.

You don't so much get used to it as accept that you're going to sweat every time you step foot outside. Drink all the water in the world, change clothes frequently, modulate the work for the horses if it's going to be oppressively hot, and muddle on through.

[Rockabilly]

Well, you make adjustments. I'm in Middle Tennessee and we experience the kind of weather you're talking about. Take lots of breaks. Stay inside the air-conditioned house and know you have to go through it when you shop. I think most of all you just accept it. Now I wonder how people stand all that cold in the North.

[Josette]

The past few days in NJ has been very difficult with high temperatures and humidity pushing the heat index up to 100+. Today, there is an bad air quality advisory in our county due to pollution - not pollen. The warning is not to exercise and be mindful for those with medical and respiratory conditions. Two weeks ago, I purchased a large 42 inch fan placed directly in front of the open stall door. It is the perfect size blocking the door and the pony loves it. I have to use the low setting because the high one will blow the bedding out of the stall LOL!

[PaulaO]

We've had a few days with air quality advisories. I have mild COPD and I can definitely tell that breathing is more difficult. As far as Illinois winters, let's just say I have R-SAD. Reverse seasonal affective disorder. I'd much rather have it 20 below than 95 above.

[heddylamar]

It feels like a hot bathtub outside right now Yesterday was even more hot and humid, and apparently it hit 100 (plus whatever heat index) on Sunday

You adjust. Change your schedule/plans to suit the weather ... and dress for the weather. I don't know that any of us who frequent the barn in the heat wear cotton. It's all running/wicking type clothes, the sort that are actually cool against your skin from sweat if there's any semblance of a breeze. And LOTS of water.

I don't actually mind the sweltering heat, but I hate our mild winters. If it's going to be miserable in the summer, I want awesome, cold, snowy winters!

[Imperini]

I take two jugs of water, wear the athletic type shirts, and get up between 5 and 6am to get my ride in before it gets too hot. There's not much humidity here so that's a plus but it did get to 115F the other weekend. I don't know how people do it where it's really hot AND humid though. At least when we sweat here it's useful for cooling off instead of just swimming in it.

[Tanga]

I feel sorry for you guys! I cannot handle humidity, and with my curly air, would look like Little Orphan Annie. If I ever think about moving some place, that has to be a 100% no way for me. I can handle just about anything else.

PaulaO--We used to go visit my mom's family in Illinois every year in the summer and it was pretty awful (coming from I can see the bay CA) and that wasn't riding horses or get things done. Just sitting around trying to deal.

We're having a super mild summer here. I guess it's balancing out what the east coast is having. We need it. Huge fires would be awful through all of this. I think everything is burned already anyway.

[demi]

I’m in central Texas and we have similar weather similar to Ponichiwa’s in Houston, a little hotter maybe, but not quite as humid. June is not too bad because it still cools down at night but by July the nights stay in the mid to high 70’s and I feel it take a toll on the horses. August is as bad as July, maybe worse because I’m worn out from July.

My horses have big fans in their stalls and they have free access to big shaded pastures. But by July the grass is all dried up. They go out in the mornings but usually choose to come in their stalls before noon.

In June I can get in normal rides 5 days a week if I ride before 8 am. By July all I do is walk work with very little trot and canter, and only 2-3 days a week.

[Chisamba]

I use the heat plus humidity ratio and if it's over 130 ai keep riding work, as in trot and canter, to 20 minutes. i hose off the horses who do have fans in their stalls.

the other day I actually wore shorts.

do not rush, move about calmly, drink lots of fluids, use elecrtolytes.

really really watch you horses are sweating well.

[PaulaO]

My biggest concern over nasty summer weather is Miss A. Two summers ago she coliced from the heat. She always has fresh cold water and a salt block. I give her paste electrolytes if it’s nasty for more than a day or so. Unfortunately she cannot be in her stall if the other horses are out. Fortunately the horses go out early and come in early if it’s nasty. I worry myself into a low level panic attack, go to the barn every night, then exhaust myself to the point of sleeping all day.

[texsuze]

Ditto Demi's post, nearly to the letter, including general location But I've been out of the saddle for a few years now, so my concerns are keeping my retired gelding (29 y.o. this month) from cratering and trying my best to prevent heat stress with my hens. I'm outside, either in the barn or doing ranch chores for 3-4 hours most days, summer included. I don't worry about me, just my critters.

Having spent nearly 54 years living in TX, first in Houston, then Dallas, now Cen. TX, I will say that I don't remember such extremes in weather events as we've had in the last several years. Growing up outside Houston, my first car did not have A/C. Inconvenient, but do-able. Maybe youth and resiliency helped. I don't remember it being as hot as now.

We lived in Dallas when the drought of 1998 hit, and that was an eye-opener; but I was riding (jumping) 5-6 days a week, always in the mornings, without a hitch. Again, I was much younger and so was my horse . And when the epic drought of 2011 took hold, we'd been living here on ranch for a few years. Talk about stress--that year was a wreck all around. So now the humidity will swing from high to low during the course of a day, whereas in years past, we'd have consistently lower humidity overall during the summers. There seems to be no such thing as "seasonal averages" anymore, because every 'season', if you will, is different, except that summers are always hot!

[Rockabilly]

I remember taking lessons with Jim Graham in the middle of a very hot humid summer in Alabama with my dear Rockabilly. Yes, we were both younger and we would take a break, but you had to be tough to ride with Jim so we just did it. I cooled Billy afterward with a nice cool bath. Somehow we survived. Today we wouldn't be able to do it.

[khall]

I live in middle Georgia and yes we are hot and humid here. I remember even hotter summers when I was younger, but the big difference is I always had shade to ride in. A lovely 150 trees 10 plus acres of pecans. I don't have that here at the farm that my husband and I built. I'm not doing much with horses right now, maybe a bit of in hand work in the barn aisle. It quite frankly is too hot. It is the humidity that is the kicker for sure. Last summer we did not hit these hot temps until late August into early October and I had no problem riding all summer. This year they've come in early, I just hope they leave early!

You can get one maybe two worked early (unfortunately I struggle with early rising, I am a night owl often cleaning stalls until 11/12 at night) My horses are in stalls with fans for about 12 hours then out in grass pastures overnight.

[piedmontfields]

Paula, my DH is from Chicago area and he thinks the weather is much worse there than here in E TN. You get hot days in summer *and* cold days in winter! We really only get at most several weeks of weather stuck in the 90s; the rest of summer is usually in the 80s. Spring and fall are long and winter is mild with at most a week of truly winter temps (highs below freezing).

So actually, the weather part of living in the south is easy! This is the first year that I've kept Emi on day turnout in the summer (in part to manage grass intake). She wears a UV fly sheet/mask and has been doing just fine. Se is a good sweater, though. I do feed daily electrolytes year round---no need to wait until it heats up! On super hot days, I either ride early, ride in the shade as khall noted, or don't ride.

[heddylamar]

I would love shade! Our arena is on the crest of a hill, above the surrounding trees. The only treed pasture is too steep to do any work ... and the other option is shady trails. We're right off a swampy river, and the trails are in the park between us and the river. When it's this hot and humid, entering the woods is like entering a wall of deer flies. It's miserable.

If I can't get out to ride before 9 AM, I don't ride.

[piedmontfields]

heddylamar, our arena is also on top of a ridge in full sun. It can be brutal!

But it is possible to work along shade lines bordering woods in other parts of the farm, or hack in the woods. For some reason, flies are much worse in the sun than in the shade around here.

[Kyra's Mom]

I don't think I would survive in the south. As I am getting older, I am finding myself much less tolerant of heat. With heat indexes like you guys have, I think I would just melt.

Oh, we have heat here but yes...it is a dry heat . Humidity is seldom over 40% and often only 15-20%. Right now it is 62% but we had some thunderstorms blow in with not much rain but it did increase the humidity. It will be gone by tomorrow. If I ride before noon or after 7:30 or 8pm, I do OK. On days it gets near or over 100F, I try to get out earlier in the morning. Then I run home to my air conditioned house .

Susan

[demi]

Texsue, I worry about my critters, too! If it would just cool down under 70 at night it would give them some relief, but it’s still 90 right now at 8:55 pm and it won’t get below 80 till 3 am. From 3 am till 6 am it will be 79, and then a few hours at 78 and then as the sun comes up the temps start back to the mid high 90’s. DH is from Texas and he says it’s been hot like this as long as he can remember, but my MIL says differently. She was born and raised in Italy, Texas and they didn’t have AC til she was and adult. Says they didn’t need it...

[Josette]

Prior to the start of this heat wave I was riding 5-6 times a week. I'd had a lovely ride the day before and then the weather changed. I went out to check my pony and he was down in his stall although I had 2 box fans running plus the recent 42 inch fan in the aisle. I didn't wait but called my vet who came out and did blood work - all normal. We started him on the One A/C supplement and I have not attempted to ride again, The heat index has been too high. Then recent storms added to the humidity and another heat wave coming for next week. Now the large fan is blocking his open stall door and he rarely bothers to leave his stall. Free access to a salt block is half gone and daily cold water hosing to keep him comfortable. The minimal effort for me to clean stall and do these outdoor activities make my clothes soaked with sweat. IMO this weather seems more excessive then I recall in the past. It's about staying safe now.