I’ve heard around horse people for years that you should avoid getting water in a horse’s ears when you’re washing them since their ear canals are mostly vertical, and it can lead to infections, etc. On the surface, that sounds plausible, but. . . does that actually happen in real life? It would seem that in the wild that horses might occasionally get water in their ears, and not necessarily end up with an ear infection.
That’s a new one to me. I’ve had horses for 7 years and given many a bath, and never once has anyone said (nor have I heard) that I should be mindful of their ears.
Horses naturally have a fair amount of fluff in their ears to protect them from water and insects, though. I know some who “strip” the ears for shows (shave them completely clean), so perhaps in those circumstances, without natural defenses, there may be concern of getting water in the ears. I do know that when my mare’s ears were only partially clipped for a show, these nasty little blood-sucking bugs (that apparently made her itch like mad) immediately made a home in them. I’ve let her be fluffy-eared ever since, and she’s been completely ear-bug-free. It hasn’t affect our scores at local horse shows.
Obviously, it rains on horses, especially wild ones. I haven’t had horses in years, but I never heard of taking care not to get water in their ears. Many are sensitive about their ears in general, and don’t like them touched, but I can’t see that they could keep water out if they were out in a storm in a pasture. Ours would often just stand out under the trees and not come to the barn during rain, so they couldn’t have been too miserable.
Another bit of horse lore that I’ve heard: You need to scrape off excess water after washing a horse because the waterlogged hair can act as insulation and cause the horse to overhead. That one doesn’t seem quite right, either.
That’s completely wrong. Wet hair stays slicked down and removes the normal insulation effect of puffed up, fluffy hair. That can be quite serious here in Minnesota. If you ever need to wash a horse during the winter, you scrape off as much water as you can afterwards, so they dry faster. And you cover them with a heavy, insulated blanket until they dry, to replace the insulation normally provided by their winter coat.
If you have show horses that have a clipped coat in winter, you often have to keep them covered with a light blanket all through the coldest part of the winter.
In 50-some years of working with horses, I’ve never heard of this actually happening, due to ‘water in the ears’. The ear canals in horses aren’t the best at removing excess water (but then, neither are humans), and the horses at least can flip their ears back to keep the rain out.
Horses do have ear problems, but they are usually caused by injury or bugs.
In fact, the pasture horses who are rarely bathed tend to have more ear problems than the show horses who get washed frequently. Which would seem to argue against the ‘water in the ear’ concern.
I’ve been swimming with horses (kidjanot). Well, was riding them in a river but it got deep and one horse rolled like a kayak (with its rider). Horses seemed totally cool with it all. I doubt we would have been allowed to do that if it was an issue (this was a military academy and believe me they took care of the horses very well…to the point they provided for the horses’ care and not the humans…story for another day but I will say it ended with eight people in the infirmary while the horses were fine).
This is true but only in a small fact set - if the horse is hot from intensive exercise AND the weather is both hot and humid. The layer of water inhibits the cooling effect of the water because it is not evaporating due to the high humidity; it sits on the horse and quickly rises to blood temperature. A layer of warm water forms on the fur which actually prevents new cold water from touching the skin.
This was a takeaway from the Equestrian events at the Atlanta Olympics - the best cooling system in a high humidity environment uses ice-cold water AND fans to promote evaporation. At that time it was also disproved that there is anything bad about hosing down a hot horse with cold water. (people said this would cause cramps, “tying up” spontaneous combustion, etc.)
However, water on a horse is NOT generally a good insulator, as others have noted you have to be careful letting them stand wet when the weather is cold.
So, in sum, this statement is true within the circumstances it applies to.
http://equisearch.com/horses_care/health/first_aid/heat_stress_prevention_strategy_080609/index1.aspx