Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Hi Folks, I just signed on to Ridecamp although I have made
use of the archives in the past. My horse Indigo Blue was one of 2 horses
that tied up on the first loop of the Biltmore ride this weekend at about
5-7 miles out. I am pretty stumped as to why this happened and I was
hoping for some insight from some others experienced with this syndrome.
I'll give you a little background history about my horse. 
Even though this was his first endurance ride he is a very experienced
distance horse with 1700+ miles in NATRC mostly in the Open division
including the Championship Challenge in 2002 in Missouri (80 miles in 2
days at 6mph). He has tied up once before which was last year in April
(not at a competition). He had a cut on his foot that I wanted to keep
out of the mud and so he was in a stall for 2 days (he's a pasture horse)
the next day when I took him out for a ride (walking and slow trotting)
he started slowing down about a mile from home. I went a little further
thinking that he was being barn sour, when he started to feel stiff I
realized what was happening and hand walked him back to the barn where he
seized up. I had a shot of banamine which I gave him and got the vet out
right away to treat him. They gave him fluids, more banamine and some
lasix of make him pee. He never peed dark urine. Even after the treatment
he could not move at all for 10 - 12 hours and his whole rear end and
loins were involved. After he came out of it I gave him 6 weeks of rest.
It was 4 weeks until his AST (muscle enzyme) came down to normal and 2
weeks for extra measure. I brought him back slowly and 3 1./2 months
after the incident he did a CTR in Kentucky. 
In the mean time I changed his diet taking out most of the grain and
adding beet pulp and rice bran and eliminating alfalfa. He is mostly on
pasture and gets fed once a day. I started giving him X-tie up which you
give once a month for 3 days. He conditioning improved throughout the
season and he was the high point horse at the last ride of the year
(which was the Biltmore CTR). He had a month off during the holidays and
I've been riding him regularly since then. I condition in the mountains
of Virginia and NC. In the month before this ride he did a NATRC ride 3
weeks ago that was timed pretty slow. Then 2 weeks ago I did a fast
conditioning ride with friends in the mountains of about 35-40 miles to
get him ready for Biltmore with some short rides on our home trail in
between. 
OK fast forward to the weekend of the ride. I arrived on Thursday
afternoon because I wanted time to take in everything since it was our
first time. When I got there I took him out for a ride of about 6 miles.
He was in a paddock all weekend so he had some movement. On Friday I rode
him for an hour slow and spent a lot of time grazing him and hand walking
him throughout the weekend. The only thing I did differently than usual
was that I forgot to bring his chopped timothy that I use to make his
slurpy mash and used chopped alfalfa instead. He got some on Thursday
night and Friday am & pm. It probably amounted to half of a 5 gallon
bucket in all. I gave him Preform and Win electrolytes in his feed
Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the ride. 
The morning of the ride I longed him for about 5 minutes before saddling
him and warmed him up at the walk on my way to the starting area. Then I
stopped for about 15 minutes and talked to some friends. I then trotted
him slowly for a couple of minutes in the arena. When the trail opened I
slipped in to the middle of the pack in a very comfortable spot. We were
doing a strong working trot and he was manageable but excited to be with
all those horses. He felt really good and strong and a few people even
commented on how good he looked going down the trail. about 30 minutes
later he let a couple of horses pass without putting up a fuss which was
a little strange for him. Then he started slowing a bit which was also
strange. I started to detect something going on with his left rear and
started looking back to see what was up. He then slowed to a walk and
pulled over to the side of the trail. I got off and checked him and he
small band of tight muscle in left hindquarter. I massaged it a little
and started hand walking him to see if it would work out. It seemed to so
I got back on and continued walking for a bit until I came on Patsy Gowen
on the side of the trail whose horse was tied up and not moving. I
decided to stop at that point and stay with her. We thankfully were
fairly close to a road so I was able to call Ann on my cell phone and
describe where we were so they could get a trailer to pick us up. At that
point Blue was stiff in the left rear but not locked up. By the time he
got off the trailer at the treatment area his left hindquarter was hard
as a rock and he did not want to move. The right side wasn't bad. 
We spent the day in the treatment area getting fluids, DMSO and several
other things. Blue never had the dark urine that the other horses had,
his stayed clear the whole time. I met some great people (not the way I
would have liked to have met them but...) Another horse came in soon
after ours that had tied up on the second loop of the 100 and a few more
throughout the day who had some mild tieing-up symptoms. It was weird to
me that there was so much of that going on. We were all trying to figure
out what was going on and were thinking that it might have something to
do with the grass. It was very lush with not a weed in sight. Blue is on
pasture that is coming on pretty lush now but we don't use any herbicide
and there are all kinds of grasses, clovers, weeds etc in his pasture. I
didn't think I needed to be concerned with the grass there since he was
already used to green grass. 
When something as mysterious as this happens you try and look at
everything you have done to find a clue. Here is a summary of some things
I think could have played a part and I welcome any comments, suggestions
and insight from you folks. 
**CTR competition 3 weeks before followed by long fast conditioning ride
2 weeks before (did his muscles not have enough time to recover before
the endurance ride?)
** Arrived on Thursday afternoon (did he not have enough movement even
though I rode him lightly each day and hand walked him?)
**fed chopped alfalfa the two days before the ride instead of his regular
timothy (could that have messed up his calcium phosphorus balance?)
** Warmed him up at the walk but only trotted for a couple of minutes,
maybe twice around the arena. (did I not warm him up enough for the
intensity of the start?)
** Hand grazed him a lot while I was there (was there something about the
grass there that was different than home?)
** The only other time he tied-up was last spring, could it have
something to do with the season?
That's all I can think of right now. Bring on the
comments...........................

Thanks, Nancy Sluys and Indigo Blue (who is doing a lot better and moving
pretty well although his left hindquarter is still a little bit hard and
swollen)