Re: RC: Howard

[BMcCrary27@aol.com]

In a message dated 03/22/2000 8:30:14 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
tothedogs@earthlink.net writes:

<< This
 horse doesn't stop eating for anything.  But they couldnt' find any
 signs of a problem.  He finally started eating and was perfectly fine.
 But I'm not sorry that we pulled.  Looking back, he had eaten 2 flakes
 of hay in 36 hours...he should have eaten 6-8.  I don;t know what was
 wrong...I don't really know if anything at all was wrong.  But it felt
 wrong to me and I still think I did the best thing for us. >>

I had a similar experience once while riding the Tevis.  The horse I was 
riding had completed the ride 4 times with four different riders.  I was 
certain of a finish that day.  After leaving Robinson Flat (32 miles from 
start), the horse was hard to motivate.  When we arrived at Deadman (just 
past 50 miles), he ignored a pile of alfalfa with carrots on top of it, 
looked off into space and said "no thnk you, I'm not hungry".  I never knew 
what was going on, but I pulled him, trailered him out, and he lived to ride 
again.  That trail is one you don't want to have a horse collapse on, 
somewhere so far away from help that you'd never get him out.

Barbara