06/09/2026
It’s heating up out there - in the northern hemisphere, at least - and time to start thinking about some hot weather lessons for your students and summer day campers. 🌞
A few years ago, we added a full unmounted class on heat safety to our lesson lineup. We realized that many of our younger students had NO idea how to read heat and humidity and keep their cool during summer activities, and that our older students were very interested in learning how hot weather affected their horses.
This lesson could include some or all of the following topics:
⚠️ When is it too hot to ride? Show students how to calculate the heat index, or where to find this information on their weather apps, before sharing handy charts they can use to determine appropriate activities for their horse. (There are many available through a quick internet search!) Don’t assume that your students know what the heat index IS - we had several tell us that they’d heard humidity discussed but had no idea what it meant.
🥕 What can we do when it is too hot to ride? Have students brainstorm a list of safe and fun activities for hot weather days. This could include slow ba****ck rides, shady trail walks, groundwork games, trick training, splash parties, etc. Don’t skip this part of the lesson - it reframes your summer lessons entirely and helps students look forward to days they may not be able to practice thrilling skills like cantering or jumping!
🚿 Demonstrate how to assess a horse for signs of heat stress and how to reduce the horse’s body temperature. It is IDEAL to practice this on a horse fresh off a workout (maybe one of your other students or boarders would like to participate?), but in a pinch you can use photos of hot horses to point out visual cues like lather, visible veins, flared nostrils, etc. Guide students through the process of a post-ride cool-down from dismounting and loosening the girth to determining when it is safe to feed. Be prepared to do some mythbusting as you discuss the role of sweat scrapers and whether or not a hot horse should be allowed to drink water.
💦 Discuss the importance of horsey hydration and show students how much water a horse needs to drink on a hot day. You can get hands-on by having students scrub buckets and troughs (include contests such as a bucket relay to make the chore fun) or having students experiment with related enrichment games, such as apple bobbing for horses or a buffet of “teas” with horse-friendly flavors.
😎 Discuss the importance of hydration for riders. SHOW students how much water they need to be drinking, starting with the day before their riding lesson. Share your favorite tips for keeping cool in the saddle. (In hot Georgia, our students are required to get wet with the hose mister before entering the arena!) Bring several common clothing items and let students FEEL the weight and moisture-wicking properties of each type of material.
🥵 Teach students the symptoms of heat exhaustion, and have them promise to tell their instructor if they start to feel iffy during a ride.
🥤 Optionally, finish by having students personalize their refillable water bottles with horsey stickers.
Some Learning Levels resources you might find helpful:
📒 Teaching Guide for Yellow HorseSense Level
📝 Vital Signs Worksheet
📙 HorseSense Study Guide for Yellow Level
Want more ideas? THE BIG BOOK OF BARN LESSONS is a treasure trove of unmounted games like these. 📖 LLPro members can also find lesson activities for every objective in our unmounted curriculum in the HorseSense Teaching Guides - plus games, flashcards and more!
