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Re: [RC] Horses staying in shape and knees - Truman

Catfish,

I ride my mare on a 55 - thing I finished 5 galloping past 10 horses in the last 10 miles. I went home and got on an airplane on Monday. I was going out to support a major military exercise and was going to be gone for abour four weeks. I asked my wife to ride her some. While I was gone I asked her if she had ridden the mare and she said, "she is being a real bitch, there is no way I'm going to risk my life riding her." I get home 3 and 1/2 weeks later, climb in the truck and drive up to the Carolina ride where I was going to do the 100. The mare had done nothing but be in the pasture for 31/2 weeks.

The first 10 miles we are galloping sideways and about 15 miles I gave up - actually gave out and we ended up doing the first 50 in 5 1/2 hours - a lot faster  than I wanted to go. This ride was in Nov so there wasn't much daylight so we had to slow down in the dark. We would have done it in about 13 hours hadn't we not gotten lost (different story ) for two hours 1/2. She really wasn't tired at the finish. She was too damn fresh going into the ride since she came close to killing me.

Bottom line to all this is if they are out they tend to maintain pretty well. It all depends on the type of shape they were in prior to the lay-up and for how long they were in top shape. An experienced campaigner will maintain condition much longer than a horse that just got into top shape. My experience - and this has been documented by studies - horses maintain conditioning a lot longer than humans.

As far as your knee. A good friend of mine went though this and ignored his doctor. By the time he finally decided on surgery - easy micro-surgical repair was not an option. He had to have a cadavers ligament used to repair his. The next step for him is an artificial knee! There will be another Tevis - there won't be another knee.

Truman

Catfish Daniels wrote:

Hi everyone:

Just recently two topics were discussed, to which I sorta didn’t pay much attention to.  Today I wish I had, and any comments/suggestions would greatly be appreciated – and I apologize for the repeat.

 

This morning I mis-stepped why standing on the back of my truck, and landed with a fully extended knee below – hyper extended it pretty badly.  Anyway, can’t walk or put weight on it, it’s pretty swollen.  It feels like a prior meniscus injury I’ve had 18 months ago to which I elected to physical therapy and exercises rather than the recommended surgery.  Long story short, same swelling, same knee.  No sympathy, please…my own stupidity.  My question are these:

 

1)       For all 100 milers:  If this injury is the same as the last one I had, I won’t be back in the saddle for about 4-5 weeks, about beginning of July (if I’m lucky).  I’m on the entry list for this year’s Tevis Cup.  I know timing is very bad, but given what I’ve got to work with, how long can I “sorta” expect for my horse to stay in shape without being exercised?  My mind’s playing tricks on me, and I swear he already gained 900 lbs when I missed this morning’s training ride.  Tevis is July 31st.

2)       As for the recent discussion about knee problems, what is the best experience any of you have had with different knee braces for best support while riding? 

 

Just like last time, the doctor’s orders (and I’ll see him on Tuesday) will be either surgery and/or lay off for a good while.  And obviously that Tevis is “out”.  Stupid on my part – yes – but any suggestions on how to successfully “attempt” to break the doctor’s orders would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks so much for any suggestions you may have.  I’m sorry to bother you guys with this sorta stuff.

 

Catfish

 

DBL Realtors

 


Replies
[RC] Horses staying in shape and knees, Catfish Daniels