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Another thing to keep in mind when hosing after a ride is that you don't want to turn them out while they are still wet if it is sunny and humid out. The water won't dry as quickly and will sit on them and heat them back up. This can increase chances of colic (from cooling down and then heating back up again) and the horse won't be very comfy.
Think of it like you wearing a shirt and jeans and getting hosed off, and then standing in the sun. At first it feels nice and cool but then the sun heats the water in your clothes up and you are left basically wearing a sauna suit.
When I hose off in hot, sunny weather I always make sure to let them dry in the shade before turning them back out.
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*~Whiskey~*
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Another random thought, to help prevent the 'shock' that comes when using cold water, start at the legs and work your way up slowly. It gives the horse a chance to get use to the temperature of the water, rather than spraying directly on the body.
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If you act like you've only got fifteen minutes, it'll take all day. Act like you've got all day and it'll take fifteen minutes.~ Monty Roberts
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R.I.P. Purcocious
March 27, 1982 ~ January 8, 2010
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| Catus cloth is hte best thing to remove sweat marks. Always begin hosing at hte feet like the pervious poster said. Always always esp if hte horse is hot. This prevents founder as well as the 'shock' of cold water. but mostly founder. The way I was told it if you start hosing off on the body (ie neck/ back) hte blood that is still hot in hte body will 'rush' to hte feet and can founder a horse. So always start at feet and work up. Heck even when giving a full bath I start at hte feet out of habit even if hte horse is not hot.
If ponies were human.. most would be in prison. Mrs. Smith COTH
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| As long as it's done properly, there's no problem with hosing an extremely hot horse down with cold water. Racing, eventing, endurance, etc. etc. commonly use this method. Spraying the horse with cold water and then almost immediately scraping the excess water off is a very effective way of lowering the body temperature. If you have a horse that's about to suffer a heatstroke or is already suffering from one, the temperature needs to decrease immediately or the lungs and pulmonary (also systemic) systems can start shutting down. Horses, like most vertebrate animals, have very thin dermis layers of their skin. The dermis houses nerve endings, sweat and sebaceous glands, and important blood and lymph vessels. What makes the method of rapid cooling so successful is that the blood and lymp vessels run so close to the epidermis that it is a inner temperature control. The constantly circulating blood and lymph fluid moderate the body temperature by fluctuating the fluid that's too or overheated to the surface, allowing the heat to dissipate through the skin and into the air (also through the production of sweat). When you spray an overheated horse with icey or cold water and scrape it off, that heat is dissipated more quickly and allows more inner body heat to escape at a rate faster than if the horse were to be walked or left alone. It's rather the same as why we put coolers or anti-sweats on a sweaty horse in cold weather - the fabric draws the moisture out of the coat/skin while keeping the horse from getting chilled.
__________________________________________ "It is an interesting and demonstrable fact, that all children are atheists and were religion not inculcated into their minds, they would remain so." - Ernestine Rose "There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven." - Robert Green Ingersoll 
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My horse has sweat marks that don't come off with a cury or brush either. AFTER you cool down you horse get a sponge (a big one) and a squeege and a bucket of water. then go over the back, stomach, neck (all the way down to the chest) and then you can scrub the saddle/girth area with the sponge. Don't be afaird to use to much water. Then squeege you horse down..then if you want you can use a towel.
Ride For JESUS!www.pride-taffy.webs.com 
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I hose Hercules down after every ride even if it isn't all that sweaty. It gets kind of hot down here so, we try our best to keep him happy....I start at the legs and work my way up. I have a garden hose nozzle that has different settings such as a shower, jet, soaker, and so on. I usually just use the flat setting on his white spots and around his saddle area. It gets the job done!
 Hercules 16yr old Appaloosa Stallion
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I always rinse my horse off and I have never seen a sweat mark after that. It also cools them down a bit more.
Please send me your answers,
Gooymonster
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After your ride, once you have walked him and cooled him off, take off his tack and go over lightly with a curry comb on the area the saddle covers. This will loosen the dirt so when you wash him off the dirt will come off easier. If you have one at the wash rack a grooming glove also works really well (or you could just give him a bath and scrub really hard)!!
Emma
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I agree with Purcocious -- start from the legs up, that's how I was always taught and I'll pass it on. It won't scare a young horse as easily and they'll gradually get used to the water temp.
Another thing, when you rinse a sweaty horse (after cooling down: either riding around at a relaxed walk or walking the horse from the ground) rinse in between his back legs by his butt and where the bridle was. Those are big sweat build up areas (besides the back and girth area) that can cause infections and itching if not rinsed.
I also like to take a wet cloth and massage the bit area on my horse's mouth. It helps to relieve any tension from the bit.
Hope this helps!
---Horses leave hoofprints across our hearts!
 
CanadaDry'sgirl! 
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My horse has that same problem and the lovely invention that always makes it go away is a curry comb and then brush him down with a hard brush and so on. It always works with my horse.
Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings. Jane Austen Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality. - Edgar Allen Poe I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying. -Oscar Wilde The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on. - Robert Bloch
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