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RE: [RC] Keeping horse too warm - Ranelle Rubin

I have a Doc son who is like his dad and a tank. We have yet to do our first
ride, but I find a cotton anti-sweat sheet to work well to keep him cooling,
absorb the sweat, yet not overheat him.

Ranelle

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Winter, Randy or
Cheryl
Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2005 3:35 PM
To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [RC] Keeping horse too warm

Had another learning experience this weekend at the Black Hills ride in
south Dakota, which I want to add to a top notch ride that should be on your
want to do list.  Well marked, nice awards, fun atmosphere, with beautiful
trail..

Now for the rest of the story.  Rode most of the day by myself, as my mare
does better that way when it is possible to do so.  The weather was good
riding weather, cool  overcast, and the rain held off until about the last
40 minuets of my ride.  completed with cold rain, brisk wind, ride time
about 7 hours on moderate terrain.  Wanted to be sure she had time to eat,
take her tack off and relax before presenting to vet out.  Stripped tack,
put on heavy blanket  to protect hind quarters and back, light sponging of
legs and belly and monitored her until her pulse came down.  WELLLLLL it
kept hanging up there.  Now I am getting worried, because we are getting
along in the hour.  Took her out to graze green grass, walk lightly, buckled
up the blanket to keep warm.  Still no good.  Took her to the vetting area,
expecting to DQ.  Just on a hunch I felt under the blanket on her
hindquarters, and she was sweating  a lot, and hot to the touch, neck was
cool.  This is a heavier muscled Arab, and I knew she has to be cooled out
to get her pulse down, but in these conditions, everything told me to cover
her up.  With about 4 mins. to go, I jerked the  WINTER BLANKET off her, let
her stand in the  cold air and her pulsed dropped to 48......  Lesson
learned.... for heavy muscled horses, be sure to pull the heat out of them
before covering up, or be sure to use a COOLER, and not a heavy blanket
until they can dump the heat.  For all the concern about keeping her muscles
warm, we kept her too warm so she could not cool and dump the excess heat.
After we completed, I took her back, put the blanket back on her, pulled it
up to expose her hind quarters, washed them down and swiped off water until
the muscles were cooled off, then dropped the blanket and she dried up
nicely under the blanket instead of keeping up the sweating.

So, there ya go, another thing to remember even on a cool, cold finish, may
still need to pull the heat off of some of these horses.  The fine balance
of keeping warm, but still dumping heat.

Cheryl


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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

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Replies
[RC] Keeping horse too warm, Winter, Randy or Cheryl