Ready for the Great British summer

WE horse owners spend half the year grumbling about the cold and waiting for summer. When it eventually arrives, it brings its own source of complaints.

From a riding perspective, we have to mitigate hard ground and exercising in the heat – and can avoid it altogether by riding on a surface and early in the morning, or not at all. But on a constant management basis, the warmer months throw up three major snags to cast a cloud over the notion of summer bliss – overheating, sunburn, and those pesky flies.

Heat

A BRIT never likes to complain about hot weather, given its rarity. However, when a heatwave does strike, both we and our horses are so unused to it that we struggle. Typically it takes one to two