I went to the Rolex 3 day Event last weekend (during Midterms, no less) to
assist in the vet box. Saw some very interesting things and heard very
different advise from the veterinarians.
These folks cool their horses with ICE! Everywhere! The entire body is
iced down with buckets and buckets of ice water - butts, backs and loins
included. I was shocked. One good piece of advice i heard, don't just
keep throwing water on your horse, scrape it off before you add new to get
the hot water (heated by his body) off before you add new cool water.
Otherwise, they just mix and all the water is lukewarm and none of the heat
can escape. Pull the heat off with the water using your scarper.
Anyway, they haven't done any research with distance horses yet. I am very
curious to see if these methods of cooling have detrimental effects on the
distance horse. These guys were just heading back to the barn after this
for intensive cooling and walking and wrapping, etc. Also, they took what
I thought was a very long time to cool out, especially since it was very
cool out, low humidity and the grooms were using gallons of ice water.
Their limits to be sent back to the barn was 70bpm and a temp of 102 (guess
who got to stick her hand up the butts of some very expensive horse butts)
within a half-hour and most of them were barely making it! I thought they
should have recovered much more quickly.
Has anyone heard of using the new eventing cooling techniques on distance
horses? I am very curious after watching, especially since it has been so
ingrained in me - no ice-cold water and no water on rumps.
Any thoughts?
Shannon Loomis and Quail Meadow Star