[RC] bring blankets, please! - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM
Hi folks,
For those of you planning to ride the Fire Mountain 25/50 this
weekend---the forecast says we might escape rain, but it’s going to be
COLD (by So Cal standards). Down to 27 degrees overnight and won’t
get up to fifty degrees during the day. PLEASE bring plenty of warm
blankets for your horse, even if your horse has his winter fuzz and you don’t
normally blanket at home. They’ll do better starting out with good,
warm muscles in the morning, and hopefully not get chilled and crampy at the
checks if you throw a good, warm blanket on them as soon as they come in---don’t
worry, their pulse will recover just fine with a blanket on, heat loss is NOT
going to be a big issue this weekend.
Every year we have to pull horses with bunchy, stiff muscles
that would likely have been fine with a little different management. Wouldn’t
it be nice this year if we had zero treatments and a 100% completion rate? J
Please remember that after your horse drinks a lot of freezing
cold water, blood flow to the stomach changes for awhile until the water has
had a chance to warm up. Don’t limit the water your horse wants to
drink, but please consider that some blood flow will be temporarily be shunted
away from muscles, so don’t go pelting away from water stops full
bore. Five or ten minutes of walking after a drink is a good way to
increase your chances of doing well without problems.
