I've been following the thread on electrolytes with some interest. My
husband had a horse that often refused to drink until well along in a
ride. On a desert ride in winter once, he did not drink until the 42 mile
point. He started to thump and Lud hand walked him, very carefully, to the
finish line. Some years later, the same horse was doing the same ride; by
this time, we felt that giving him electrolytes was the answer.
On one particular day, the vet check was at 35 miles. We came in, the
horse drank, but not really enough (he hadn't drunk up to that point) and we
gave him a dose of paste electrolytes. Within moments, he STARTED to
thump, then progressed into colic. The vet had to IV him with
fluids. Lud did one more ride on that horse, then sold him (cheap) to a
woman who has given him a great home, has shown him, ridden him on the
beach, and has done some fairly serious jumping on him. His sire was a
jumper, and the picture of Lud's former endurance horse jumping a double oxer of
3' is enough to bring tears to our eyes. He was a good endurance horse in
his earlier days, but as he got older, he was less and less inclined to drink
enough and more and more inclined to get into metabolic trouble. We
decided to give him a new career before he crashed and burned. He's so
happy now and so is his new owner.
Now we have two horses that know, somehow, to take care of themselves and
drink at every opportunity. It's so much less stressful for us. I'm
not convinced that giving electrolytes as a matter of course is the answer to
all problems. And should we feel that it will help, we certainly won't
give a full dose all at once. Part of our problem was inexperience, but
we're ALL learning, more and more, as we continue in this sport.
