Re: [RC] [AERC-Members] Newbie lecture - Howard Bramhall
Even though there might, occasionally, be exceptions (I really cannot think
of any), to not electrolyte your horse down here in the Southeast during an
endurance ride is taking an unacceptable risk. If a horse is so green that
he won't drink water than, maybe, he's not quite ready to do 50 miles or more
out there on the endurance trail. In my opinion, that is one of the
reasons why we have LD's. To help transition a green horse to an endurance
one.
To take this one step further, my metabolic endurance guru (and she should
be yours, also), Susan Garlinghouse is so right on about pre-hydrating your
horse prior to a ride that I'm amazed I didn't think of something so simple all
by myself. But, I didn't, and it was she who enlightened me on this.
Start with a well hydrated horse and your chances of successfully completing
that 50 or 100 mile ride increase dramatically.
Dehydration is the number one cause of a horse not completing a ride or
getting into trouble during one. Think of it as a battle; one where you
need to prepare ahead of time. Hydrating your horse prior to the ride
helps you win this battle.
cya,
Howard (when you check out Susan's site make sure you read that squirrel
story)
> At
04:41 PM 8/24/2003 -0600, Heidi Smith wrote: > > I fly in the face of
many here--I NEVER NEVER NEVER electrolyte green > > horses!!
Why? Because I want them to LEARN to drink WITHOUT the
I would
agree with this until I heard Susan G's talk this past March at the
convention and realized just how *tough* endurance riding is on a horse
metabolically - whether they show any "problems" or not. Now I think the
other way, elec them till they are pickled (as she says <g>) and
they'll have no choice but to drink. Ken Marcella (fabulous SE vet) says
the same thing - a horse who had access to water (and is not already in
trouble) really can't be overelectrolyted.
Now before someone jumps
up with their story of how they know a horse who was killed with one too
many doses I'm sure there are exceptions - his point was to USE
electrolytes early and often.
I've always suspected that many of our
horses are closer the proverbial edge than most of us ever know (or want to
know to be honest) - her talk (and comments like Ken's) confirmed it. I'm
not talking about over ridden horses - I'm talking about a nice slow 50 in
decent weather.
I'll never skimp on elec again or wonder if I should
give them. Dose first, ask questions later :)
Tina
As an
aside to this, I was at BSF one year when a horse got injured and had to be
sent to UT for treatment - I can't remember what the injury was but it
wasn't metabolics related. I was talking to Ken Marcella about it and he
said he had to really explain to the vets that it was okay to do surgery on
the horse. They didn't want to because the various liver enzymes (I *think*
I have that right) were wwaaaayyyyyy out of line. Ken's comment was that
they are always that far out of line after a ride -and it generally takes
*10 days* for them to come back to normal - the horse couldn't wait that
long for treatment :-p
