This past weekend we took four of our horses to a
competitive trail ride in northeast Indiana. The trail was 12 1/2 miles long
(done twice) and was mostly flat with some short hills and some mud.
Weather was rain the night before, temps in the 60's during the day. We drove
about 5 1/2 hours to get there and had about 14 hours from the time we got there
until we went out on trail.
David and I rode on day one. David is a heavy
heavyweight rider. His horse is 3/4 arab, 1/4 ASB. Shadow has been doing novice
rides all summer, but mostly with lighter riders. Most recently two weeks ago in
a challenging, fast 25 CTR. David does most of the training at home,
though.
I am on the line between middle and heavyweight.
Lily has been competing all summer also, most recently last weekend in a very
tough 30 in Kentucky. We've never had a problem with her metabolically in almost
10 years.
Both horses cruised through the first 12 1/2 mile
loop acting like they hadn't been out. Shadow is somewhat slow on the steeper
hills, but we attributed that to him carrying a heavy rider.
We used rumprugs on both for the whole first loop.
Both horses drank well. At the half, both drank well and ate well (grass).
Shadow's pulse was initially 69, but he was yelling for 'his girls' back at the
trailer. An immediate recheck was 56. Lily's initial pulse was 72. She was calm.
As we waited for the recheck, she urinated. It was bright red. Guess we're done
for the day. Banamine and a blanket and back to the trailer.
Shadow trotted out looking fresh and full of
himself. David left the hold a few minutes after his time to make sure I had
Lily settled in ok.
2/3 of the way around the loop, David says Shadow
slipped and then wouldn't go well with David mounted. So he walks him
several miles to the road crossing where there are checkpoint people. A trailer
is taken to pick Shadow up. It is a step-up trailer that sits fairly high off
the ground. Shadow, who normally loads well, refused to load, even when the
trailer was backed into a low spot, putting it about as high as our trailer is.
David and I walked back to camp leading Shadow.
Back at camp, Shadow is tight all the way up his
back from his tail. Banamine, blankets.
The ride vet, whom we really trust, Maureen Fehr,
checked on them frequently and we all discussed at length what was going on. She
thought that the most likely cause of Lily and Shadow's tie ups was our complete
feed. She looked at the tag from the bag (Susan G has also looked at it
online) and believed it to be a balanced diet, BUT since there is no long-stem
stuff in their gut, they don't hold fluid in there as well. In warmer weather
rides, they keep themselves hydrated pretty well, but in the colder weather,
they can't hydrate themselves and keep warm, too. At other rides, we put the
corral up and let them graze all weekend. This time, we had tied them to
the provided hitching rails with food and water in front of them. I don't
know why we didn't put the corral up, other than it was raining and the horses
just wanted to stand with their heads in a bucket of
feed.
So, up goes the corral and everyone is grazing
happily all afternoon and evening.
The next day, one of our friends who is buying one
of our horses and I are going to ride her new (my old) horse, Foxy (arab), and
David's other horse, Jazzy (Morab) in the novice ride. The day is a bit
warmer, no rain, and we agree to ride very conservatively. In competitive
riding, you can come in late and still complete, so we agree that we won't worry
about time, just enjoy the day away from her two small children and the
stresses of civilization.
The first part of the trail is fairly flat, but
muddy in places. Within the first mile, Foxy wants to lag behind. This is not
like her at all. We got to the first road crossing and decided to walk back to
camp. She didn't feel like she was tied up, but after the day before, I wasn't
going to even think about going on.
Banamine. Blankets. Yes, she had tied up, but
different muscle groups than the other two.
Maureen thought Foxy's problem was Monday Morning
Syndrome, since it hit so early in the ride, and not necessarily related to the
same problem the other two had. Foxy is also just a bit overweight.
Before you all flame me for overriding our horses,
take into consideration that we were averaging about 5 miles per hour. Not
exactly burning up the trail. I've been riding in competitive and endurance for
15 years. In that time I've had two horses treated for metabolic problems.
Neither required fluids, just banamine and rest. I have no idea how many miles
I've ridden. 5,000? endurance, CTR, LD, and R&T.
