Re: [RC] newbie water and feed question - Heidi Smith
Water is integral to the cooling down
process. Would I take an extremely exhausted and overheated horse and let
him tank up on ice water and leave him to stand? No. But the best
way to avoid watering problems is to make sure the horse drinks at every
opportunity, so that he has enough water on board to continue to sweat
adequately. Furthermore, taking on some water that is less than body
temperature can only help the cooling process.
As for feed--horses vary a lot with whether eating
will slighty delay the pulse recovery. If you have a horse for whom eating
slows recovery, you may want to wait until you have met the pulse parameter to
feed him, but it is important that you feed him at every opportunity. If
he is fit, waiting for his pulse to drop is only a few minutes anyway, so he can
get right on with eating as soon as it has. I've been fortunate in that
most of my horses have not had a problem with this--and in fact, I've had some
that were such voracious eaters that they were more apt to delay recovery by
being upset with me for NOT letting them eat. With these, I try to time
getting to the PR person so that they have just finished chewing a bite, so that
they can just get their pulses before I let them have another bite.
I hesitate to ask this question
since I am sure it is such a basic question but ….. it is about watering and
feeding your horses during and after a ride. I was always told you
should cool your horse off or get your horses heartbeat down before watering
or feeding them. Is this just an old wives tale? Instead of being
obsessed with cooling them down, I have always tried to wait for their
respiration to slow down before feeding or watering. I am getting confused
now.
