Figuring out where to park at a ride: what is cool?

Chief staying cool in his stall. Note his eye is looking good! He really is a cool horse ya know!

I mean that literally.  Just where is the coolest spot to park in camp?  How much difference does having shade make?  Does it really matter which direction you park your trailer on a hot ride?

This kind of information really isn’t a secret.  It’s just common sense.  Yet, unless you’ve given it any thought or been in a situation that would give you a reason to think about it – you might not have.

I’ve been interested in ground temperatures ever since the 2001 XP when little things like this could make a huge difference in comfort level for the riders and horses.

When you were riding a horse for nearly 12 hours a day for 8 weeks (or even one week) it really helped after going 50 miles in the intense sun to be able to park and rest up where the ground would be cooler and where the horse you rode and your extra horse could be the coolest.

That ride took place in June and July that summer and in some sections we had pretty high temperatures.

Dirt just outside the stall & in indirect sun-127 degrees

Ground temp inside horse stall - 82 degrees

Dirt in direct sun - 141 degrees

I have never handled heat tolerance as well  since then — though I have learned to manage how I deal with it.

I remember finishing one day with a 106 degree temperature and we also had pretty high humidity – that was a tough one.

My horses both did great.  We had an excellent support crew system going and had planned that from the get-go.  Just a simple buddy system, but it did take planning and prep – it paid off especially in my case.

I had a temperature and humidity gauge and wrote down that info every single day of the ride.  I recorded the temp and humidity usually at 3 or 4. a.m. when I got up, again at the start, at lunch if possible and again at the finish.

Grass in the shade - 67 degrees

Grass in the sun - 81 degrees

It didn’t take long to learn exactly how to park the trailer either.  Dave was the best crew and he always made sure to park so that in the afternoon the horses would have shade from the trailer.  This was an important consideration when parking as it really made a difference.

Look at some of the temperature variances here on different ground surfaces and you can see why!  Regardless of the surface, giving the horses some shade really gave them relief from the heat.

Rubber mat in the shade - 85 degrees

Rubber mat in the sun - 153 degrees!

So how much difference is there in ground temperature between different surfaces?  A lot more than you might think.  I took a few readings around the property here at home around 2 p.m. on Saturday and will post photos along with the temp readings in this blog post so you can see how much it varies.

The outside air temperature when I took these readings was 87 degrees.  So not real hot.  You can imagine that most of these temperature readings would go up if it were hotter.

Grass is the coolest while the rubber mats in the sun heat up the most.  There is a pretty significant change of temperatures in the same ground material between indirect sun, direct sun, and shade.  I found it interesting that concrete was cooler than both plain Nevada dirt and sand.  Sometimes in a basecamp, moving over 30 feet can have a significant difference in the ground temp if the ground is different.

Concrete in the sun - 122 degrees

Road pavement in sun - 134 degrees

At most rides this doesn’t really matter as it isn’t that hot, you have shade trees or you don’t really have a choice of where to park.

There aren’t that many point to point rides any more either – yet this is useful information to know if you are doing a hot ride.  It becomes more important when you are riding the same one or two horses for a week and want to keep them as cool as possible when they are not out on the trail working.

In the winter or when it’s cold you may wish to park where the ground will be warmest and where you’ll have the most sun for the horses.

It’s also helpful to know this for when you are picking a spot on a hot ride for lunch.  For some, having their crew pay attention to these details is most important!  I do not usually have a crew for most rides – Dave mainly just comes along on the point to point rides.

Gravel in the sun - 121 degrees

Sand from the horseshoe pit - 139 degrees in the sun

This is good to know for riding too.  If you have the choice of traveling down the middle of a hard packed dirt road or going off to the shoulder which is grass — and it’s super hot that day you’ll now know that you’ll keep your horse cooler and from having as much heat radiate onto them.

You don’t really need a temperature gun to know this.  You can tell just by getting off and feeling the heat radiate off of the surface as you walk.

For the last several months I’ve been measuring the temperature of horses hooves and their various types of hoof protection.  Seriously – the term “hot shoe” came to be for a reason!  If you are riding for an hour or more on a surface that is 140 or 150 degrees just how much heat do you think is transferred or absorbed onto your horses hooves?  And how much is retained in the materials that are used to protect your horses hoof?  How much of an increase in heat via circulation on the hoof is good and at what point does it become a health risk (or does it?)???  It’s definitely interesting! (to me, anyway…..)

Temp guns can be found pretty easily.  Try Harbor Freight tools or your local hardware store.

Stay cool out there!