I also had a horse on an IV. And it
was not due to the ride at all. She had a slight impaction which
I'll explain why later.
*Wow Kathy, I had no idea you were training for
Tevis; congrats for all the
work to get to that point and participate in the
ride!!!! Sounds like you made
extremely good decisions.....
In
hindsight for my particular issue was what happened several days prior to
the ride....... She was in pasture 24/7, however, with the temperatures
in the 100's all my horses including her were just standing under a tree
all day.
*I can totally relate to the concerns about the
temps....over here in Lake Co., we are
also having a pretty severe 3 week heat
spell. I worry about impaction too; horses aren't
moving around as much as normal, and it's too
hot to ride. What I end up doing, which seems
to be working well, is, in addition to their
water troughs, I take several of those plastic half 55 gal
drums, fill with with more water, and throw a
scoop of bran on top and a handful of red mineral salt.
The horses just love this, and suck it all
down....then the salt kicks in later and they drink more
clear water....really does seem to increase
amount of water they drink. I also do this bran/water combo with warm
water in the winter when it's below freezing.
* Some years ago when I was getting the bug to
do 50's with Chancy, I wanted to go do Cooley Ranch.
The week before it was about 105 degress for
several days. I started the bran water routine to try to get
her really hydrated that week....but it got
progressively hotter all week and I was just too worried about
those effects on her to go do the ride....which
turned out to have a nice cool fog and cloud cover. Still...
I am not sure that hauling over there after a
week of such heat would have been a good idea...One never
knows.
*I think all you can do before a ride is try to
get them as hydrated as possible with water and wet mashes....
maybe those folks with irrigated pasture have an
advantage?
