The sweats, or lack thereof

The past couple of rides I have noticed that Otter hasn't been sweating quite as much as is normal for him - but other than noticing it, I had just attributed it to us not working as much.

Today, however, we warmed up and I noticed he was breathing pretty heavily for the amount we had done.  A quick check showed me that he had not sweated at all yet, so we walked and hung out in the shade a bit, and he started to get a sweat going on his neck and between his legs, and had caught his breath again.  Figuring he was just a little slow to start sweating, we did a little bit more work (and I'm talking 5ish minutes top here), but this time when I took a walk break, he was breathing hard again, veins popping out and was bone dry.  So I immediately hopped off, and looked him over - dry on neck, between front legs, hind legs and minimal sweat under his tack.  *I* was sweating more than he was.

I loosened his girth and noseband and we headed back to the barn.  On the walk back to the barn, he got a bit of a sweat going again, but still not enough to make me comfortable.  I hosed him off to cool him off and then talked to my trainer about it.  We are going to start him on a beer a day (lucky him) and see how that goes and try some One A.C if needed.

So with that in mine - anybody have any tips, tricks or suggestions for horses with anhidrosis issues?  Or for the best way to get the beer into the horse?  Especially for a picky prima donna.. From what I've been reading it's not all that unusual for horses who make such a big climate change to have issues.

Anyways, I'll be stealing one of the hubby's Shiner Bocks on Friday and keeping my fingers crossed that he likes it and it helps him sweat more.