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To: endurance-digest@moscow.com
Subject: endurance-digest V1 #44
Reply-To: endurance@moscow.com
Precedence: bulk
endurance-digest Monday, 26 June 1995 Volume 01 : Number 044
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: RAINBEAU@DELPHI.COM
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 1995 19:30:07 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Swan Creek
Well despite the heat and drought conditions in this area the Swan Creek
ride went very smoothly with only one pull on the 50 for lameness. Julie
Abrams had received 60 some notifications of pre-entry but not that many
actually showed up probably due to the heat. Well you guys that changed your minds you missed a good ride. The trails were
well marked, the vets and
management were very efficient and organized. Dr. Jeff Adams was quite c
concerned about the heat and even had an additional check added 2 miles
out from the finish to insure they were not hurting before they went
racing down the sandy pipeline in the hot sun. This check was a no hold,jt the 68 pulse and on you went. Ride management had
provided tubs of water
for drinking every six miles and they were full both times when I went
through. They had beautiful awards, awards completion was a custom branded
brush and they even had a drawing for pit crew awards and every crew got
something. This was Jeff and Julie Abrams first time managing a ride and they
did a wonderful job. Char Richards did a great job of marking the trail
thru
the beautiful woods and wildflowers of the Allegan State game area. Sorry
more people did'nt turn out but there will be another Swan Creek next
year and it promises to be even better. On the 50 endurance there were
11 starters and 10 finished. First place was Shelly Dake on Takis Rama.
I don't remember all the rest, rider retardation has addled my memory
banks. Shelly also got Best Condition. I do know that I was eighth and
that suits me fine, its good just to finish a hot weather ride like this
and still have a horse with more left in her. Hope to see more of you
all there next year.
Karen Skuratowicz
------------------------------
From: prevatt@lds.loral.com (Truman Prevatt)
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 1995 09:22:03 -0400
Subject: Re: how much bran for a ride?
Welcome from the heat/humidity and more recently the rain capitol of the
world. It's monsoon season here and we are getting it. One common thread
in conversations when FL endurance riders meet is hydration. In fact one
of the netters from FL, a PhD in pharmacology who has been too shy to speak
up, is working on an electrolyte mix. Maybe we can convience this person to
share her work.
My view is to train the horse to drink any and all water, from a clean
stream to the dirtest, yechest mudhole. Drink early, drink often and drink
lots is my motto. I also cool the horse by applying water with a sponge
whenever pass through water. I save the bran for feeding at vet checks. I
have in front of the hrose, grass hay, alfalfa hay, water and a wet brand
mash made up of brand, grain, apples, carrots, etc. I also give a brand
mash for a meal or two after the ride. I perfer to give electrolytes by
syringe. That way the taste of the electroltes don't interfer with the
horse eatting and drinking and I can control and I know the amount she is
getting. I don't give electrolytes until we are ready to go back out.
Some horses will stop eatting if you give electrolytes.
As for wet hay, my horse tends not to eat wet hay, but she drinks large
amouts of water at almost ever opporunity - so I don't get too concerned
with feeding dry hay.
>A friend and I have a question.
>
>At the last two endurance rides I have been at it has been very hot
>or humid. Both vets talked about the importance of giving the
>horses plenty of electrolytes/bran mash, wet hay, etc.
>
>
>At the last ride, I brought almost a 5 gal bucket of bran, and
>between arriving Friday and leaving Sunday, I almost went through
>the whole thing. My mare loves bran mashes and will eat very soupu
>bran more than she will drink plain water. SInce I wanted her
>really hydrated before the ride, I gave her several mashes the
>Friday before and a small one the morning of the ride.
>
>-Is this too much bran?
>
>At home I do not bran on a regular basis, only after hard rides to
>add electrolytes.
>
>My mare did not seem to have any adverse reaction to this much bran,
>if anythng her poops were still a little hard.
>
>Karen
>
>To: ENDURANCE@MOSCOW.COM
______________________________________________________________________________
The race is not always to the swift, but to those that keep running.
Truman and Mystic "The Horse from HELL" Storm
prevatt@lds.loral.com
____________________________________________________________________________
__
------------------------------
From: WarholNW@ccmail.apldbio.com
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 95 10:37:44 PDT
Subject: Ron Mclaughlin Clinic
Hi everyone! I want to report on what I did this past weekend with my
new horse. My riding instructor (Donna Synder-Smith) suggested I take
my young Arab Shatta to a 3 day riding clinic put on by a cowboy named
Ron McLaughlin. OH yeah? 3 days of chasing cows? Are you nuts? I
have nothing against cowboys, reining, cattle work, and the like, I
just have no desire to actually do it. She assured me that was not
what it was all about. Ron is a horseman, and is a good teacher on
all aspects of horsemanship. My new guy needs to learn how to slow
down a bit, and to pay more attention to me. She told me this clinic
is just the thing for us. I trust her, so I went, and brought along a
stable friend so we would not be the only non-Quarterhorse there.
We got to the covered area in Brentwood, Ca, on the hottest weekend on
record in a long time. At least it was covered, and there was a
swimming pool at the house. A stable worker stood by the arena fence
for 3 days and hosed us off! What a great sport! I was shocked to
see 21 horses in the arena! That's Twenty-one horses and riders! I
was upset at first, since it was like trying to ride on a New York
sidewalk.
I was wrong about the clientele as well. There were 4 endurance
riders, a few dressage types (with those HUGE horses), some trail
riders, some jumpers, and a few cow horses. It was a nice mix of
riders and animals.
I never realized how much hard work you can do in an arena! The group
rode around the arena, doing whatever Ron commanded. Here is an
example:
Everyone Walk your horses at a nice, easy walk. Now go into a
collected trot. small circle left, big circle left, roll-away left,
360 to the left, with a roll-away on top, 2 big circles to the left,
reverse to the right, large circle to the left, roll-away left, roll
away right, canter, roll-away right, roll-away left, posting trot,
etc, etc, etc. We would go for what seemed like 30 minutes at a time.
Ron was evaluating all the horses and riders for what he felt we
should all work on. We would all then stop, and go sit on our horses
at the end of the arena. Ron would then pull out one, two, or three
riders and have them do special things, depending on how he feels
about the horse and rider. Those breaks were wonderful! And one of
the things Shatta needs to learn is how to park. He was standing like
a statue by the end of the second day. I love it!
I have never done as much cantering in my entire arena life as I did
during those 3 days! My horse was in a hurry at the beginning of day
one, and I was riding "to tight" according to Ron. He made me work on
loosening up by riding with my elbows straight out (for an hour at a
time), and by keeping my legs off the horse. We did these really
neat "Blue Angels" group patterns, individual patterns by memory, we
learned how to do flying lead changes, and believe it or not, I
learned how to do 360 degree spins. Just like those cowboys. And you
know what else? IT WAS FUN! Shatta is a real athlete, and learned
how to spin in about 10 minutes. Its a kick to come cantering up the
rail, and canter into a 360 spin, and come flying out at the same
canter! Now I can do a 360 at the start of a 50 miler and impress the
heck out of everyone! (yeah, right!) The best thing was I taught my
horse how to do a bunch of things that made us both much better
together. One thing Ron had me do for 30 minutes straight was to go
do tight trotting 360s in both directions. Tight like the horses head
is on his shoulder! At first he hated it, at the end he was trotting
smoothly all the way through.
I was real surprised at how I felt at the end. All those damn horses
on the first day are one of the best training devices I have ever
used. You learn how to keep your head, not to panic, and how to
control your horse in all the traffic. The only thing I hated was
trotting without stirrups! OUCH! I don't have that one down yet.
Besides, Shatta can trot the entire length of the huge Arena in 15
strides! (we did a lot of stride counting. Walk across the arena and
count your steps, then do the same thing with 5 less and 5 more steps.
It's not easy! Even harder at the trot)
I made a huge connection with my horse, and was so happy with the way
he responded I can hardly contain myself. I will be going back as
soon as he holds another one in my area. For $200, we rode about 6-7
hours a day for 3 days. It's a shame it was so hot, but we would just
jump off the horse and into the pool while our team members would keep
the horses hosed off.
If anyone is interested, let me know and I will send you his phone
number.
Nick Warhol and my new "Cow Pony" Shatta, the 15.2 hand Spanish Arab.
------------------------------
From: laneyh@ix.netcom.com (Lucia Humphrey)
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 1995 13:36:42 -0700
Subject: Castle Rock (CA) ride 6/24th
Dear endurance trailmates -
I can't believe I'm the first to recover sufficiently to stagger to
my computer & post something about the Castle Rock ride. What an
experience! Barbara & Lud and all the other McCrary's are incredibly
dedicated and caring ride managers who have put on one of the best
rides for 27 or so years. But this year all their caring, concern and
dedication couldn't overcome the weather. Originally they had to
postpone the ride from its traditional 3rd-weekend-in-May date to the
only weekend in June without a ride - the 24th. Being right on the
central coast of Calif and normally totally fog ridden, the month's
delay shouldn't have made a difference. BUT...after a winter and
spring of unremitting rain and cold, we had a heat wave to contend
with. I hope someone with more access to facts and not hearsay & rumor
with eventually post something but I do know that the head vet stopped
the Big Creek 70 at 55 miles when the temperature reached 100 and the
humidity 55 (I grew up in Tennessee & I know horses & people can deal
with that but not horses & people not conditioned to it!) At the
awards dinner Sat. night Barbara McCrary could positively identify 24
horses/riders who finished the entire 50 mile course before the 6pm
cutoff out of 127 who started. There surely are others who did & there
are also a number (including me) who were told at the last vet check
not to do the last 6 miles including the last of 3 monster hills and
just get into camp by the shortest route possible (none of us had been
pulled by the way). The trouble was that there were conflicting ideas
about what to do among the people in charge and the result was total
confusion. It will all get sorted out, I'm sure, and everyone will get
recognition for what they & their horse accomplished.
One of the reasons I love this ride so much is that it demands a
high degree of strategy and planning. The first 25 miles or so are
flat, cool, wide trails which lure the unsuspecting rider into going
too fast. Every year in her Fri. talk, Barbara warns against this and
every year horses fall by the wayside as they confront the first of the
long hills that go on and on and on after the first vet check. Not
only does the trail go up, it goes inland away from the cool coastal
fog and breezes (and for you who don't know coastal CA, the temperature
goes from a cool,foggy 60 to a blistering, sunny 100 in a couple of
miles). There was not a breath of air and the humidity was unusually
high for around here. I think the hottest part of the 50 miles was
before lunch when the trail was up on a ridge of "chalk rock" that just
soaked up the heat and threw it back at you.
I don't know when or where most horses got pulled but I'll bet it
was at lunch. A friend was doing P&Rs and she said she had never seen
so many horses whose respiration wouldn't come down. She also advised
me to really push electrolytes which I did. This was my horse's first
ever endurance ride so I had already planned to go slow. I'm patting
myself on the back and giving her lots of hugs for her tremendous heart
because we finished looking bright eyed with all As & Bs, no lameness
and no swellings to speak of.
This was a ride to test the skill of any rider and beyond. It is
almost impossible to condition for ride conditions such as these in the
Bay Area and I know a lot of the sport's best representatives who
pulled their horses voluntarily in order to protect them.
I hope others of you who were there and know more will also post so
we can get a more complete picture.
Thanking the angel riding on my shoulder that Tara & I will have lots
more HAPPY TRAILS
Laney
------------------------------
From: "Gwen Dluehosh" <dluehosh@vt.edu>
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 04:27:24 -0500 (EST)
Subject: RE: movement and eye color
> Endurance prospect. He talks a lot about conformation, but I have a
> few questions about movement. A mare I used to own was slightly
> cowhocked in the back, but at the trot her back legs are really
> spread out (spread out much more than the front) This horse also
> moves extremely well and is surefooted. I was riding behind a horse
> at Camp Far West and noticed that this horse was EXTREMELY spread
> out at the trot with the back legs. Now my new horse has similiar
> conformation in the back (slightly toed out-which I take is
> preferred), but at the trot her hind legs when wiewed from behind
> come in pretty close together, and she is a very base wide horse.
I would watch out for the NEW horse. My stallion and his relatives are very
slightly "cow-hocked" but travel WIDE in back. He has been all over the
place and we haven't had a lick of trouble with him. Never interferes or
acts lame or anything. Even went through race training fine.
I believe that toed out a bit is good, and the reason is because if you look
at your horse's stifles and how they look compared to the horse's belly
which happens to be RIGHT in front of it, think about what happens when that
horse moves his leg forward. The stifle must point a bit out to get AROUND
the belly of the horse (obviously this is not as true with super fit no gut
horses). NOw, if the toes don't match the stifle, you would have an
incredibly crooked leg, making for a lot of torque/stress during
competition.
On no gut horses(supposedly superfit), the muscles should hopefully be
MUCH stronger in that
region of the leg, which I think would tend to pull the stifle in more
toward the midline of the horse. THis should make the horse a very straong
traveler. I noticed this with my stallion, who tends toward loose stifles.
His leg straightened considerably when he was race trained, due to muscling.
I hope you understand my explanation, that was how we learned
it on judging team, and it makes sense to me.
Slight cowhock is ok, but I
don't like to see it NOTICEABLY. I shouldn't be able to walk up to a horse
and say, "Hey he's really cowhocked!" I would like to have to watch the
horse a bit to be able to ascertain that he IS cow hocked, because it also
depends on the stance of the horse unless the cowhock is really bad.
I have no intention of ever propagating a truly cowhocked horse. Same with
sickle hocks. It really frustrates me as a breeder to see the nice old PURE
Crabbets that are being bred for the sole reason that they are PURE. That is
fine except for the fact that certain strains, COunt Dorsaz being one in
particular, are very sickle. Don't look at the pedigree first, but if it
compliments the horse, keep it. Like I should have to tell anyone who is
doing endurance. NO hock, no horse. Don't get me wrong either. I have a very
correct Count Dorsaz grandson who taught me to ride and was one of the
toughest horses I ever met. His greatgrandparents were US Cavalry horses
and his dad did the Vermont 100.
All IMHO, any comments welcome, of course.
Gwen
**********************************************************************
| Gwen Dluehosh |
| Desert Storm Arabians (| |)_____ |
| 2249 Mt. Tabor Rd / \ \__=___ |
| Blacksburg, VA 24060 (= + =) \___=___ |
| 703/953-1792 \ + / \__=____ |
| dluehosh@vt.edu | + | \____=___ |
| Endurance/racing ()+() \ _______ |
| halter stock available \_/ |
**********************************************************************
------------------------------
End of endurance-digest V1 #44
******************************