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Re: [RC] teaching a horse to drink??? - Chris Paus--- heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: Well, first off, congratulations to you for makinga> Unfortunately, I've seen people take a horse that wasn't drinking and shove down the e-lytes and make the problem worse more times than I can count. E-lytes are a tool--not a cure-all. If your horse requires e-lyte replacement, then you need to use e-lytes. But they are not a Band-aid to make non-drinking horses drink! That's true.. I think knowing your horse and using moderation and common sense are key here... When I got started in this sport, my horse refusedtodrink.. I started adding powdered gatorade to his water. It's not as good as regular equine electrolytes, but he did drink the water which was important.Again, too often I've seen horses turned off from drinking by adding stuff to water--if it works for a particular horse, then great. But don't try this at a ride until you've tried it at home! IMO, the #1 reason why a horse doesn't drink at the ride is because he also didn't eat enough, and the #2 reason is that he isn't ready to handle the excitement. Deal with those issues, and the drinking will follow. Meanwhile, ride to the circumstances (ie slow!) or, as in the case of the original post here, pull from the ride if the problem is too much, and go back to the drawing board. TRUE ENOUGH... One thing I learned with the Starman is that I started him in distance riding too soon. I entered a CTR three months after I bought him. He and I weren't ready and it blew his mind. Now, 8 years later, I have a pretty good campaigner. I'm trying to not repeat the same mistakes with my filly I'm training. I'm giving her lots of time to learn to camp out, to go down the trail and to be with other horses....before I enter her in a competition. Heidi ============================================================ REAL endurance is dressing for 20 degrees in the AM and by noon its 85 degrees! ~ Heidi Sowards ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================ ===== "A good horse makes short miles," George Eliot Chris and Star BayRab Acres http://pages.prodigy.net/paus ============================================================ The very essence of our sport is doing the trail as quickly as practicable, while keeping one's horse fit to continue. Taking the clock out of the equation makes it another sport altogether. The challenge is how to keep the sport what it is while honing our skills (both as riders and as those in control roles) in detecting where "the edge" is for each horse so that we don't cross it. ~ Heidi Smith ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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