Drake wouldn't eat or drink the night before the ride. I got
all the good stuff out for him and he picked at it. Just a little
hay and just a little grain was all I could get him to eat. He
drank less than 1/4 a bucket of water. As a result, his guts
sounds were lousy the entire time, and he had no reserve of
energy.
The morning of the ride, I met up with Cindy who promised to ride
slow with me, and her husband would crew for us.
The ride started out with a couple miles of deep sand. Since I
don't train in sand, I tried to walk. We did a bit of jigging.
Half-halt, half-halt, half-halt, release more than hold, half-halt...
And we passed a girl who should never have started the ride.
Just after the start, she was trying to adjust the length of
her stirrups. She disrupted things a couple of times and quit
at the 25 mile point.
Got a nice picture taken. Then all the other horses were ahead of
us and out of sight. So we could take it easy. After getting
out of the sand we trotted nice and slow. The ride was mostly straight
flat dirt roads or tracks. Boring. Several places along the road,
barrels of water were put out. Drake didn't want them. At about
12 miles, he decided to take a long drink, finally. At 14 miles was
the first check. We walked in last place. Got the P&R done immediately,
and passed. Vetted out just fine. If we had left on time, we would have
passed a couple of people in the vet check. But we were not in a big
hurry.
Another 9 miles of boring roads. We did pass 2 riders during this
part. At the water barrels, that same girl who didn't have her
stirrups done right, did not control her horse at all. Drake was
finally drinking good. She'd let her horse wander over and push
the other horses out of the way, then her horse wouldn't drink.
I walked to another barrel, and over she came again. There were 6
barrels of water and only 3 horses at this time.
When Cindy and I came to the gate, Cindy was nice enough to be the
gate keeper, the other two came up. The not so great girl started
to walk away. The second girl, talking to her horse, said "We'll
be polite and just sit here till Cindy gets on her horse." The
not so great girl took the hint and waited.
After the gate was a bit of track, then sand again, and back to base
camp. Drake again passed the P&R as soon as I dismounted. We had
45 minutes here. So off came the saddle, and on came the water.
Some one was filling the water tank, so I took the hose and dosed his
chest and legs really well before returning to the vet. At the vet
check, Drake's CRI went from 12 to 10. That's right, it went down
after the trot out. Vet told me a lot of peole were not cooling
their horses down. She said that Drake was a bit muscle tired, but
metabolically was doing great. She said we couldn't stop now.
45 minutes goes too fast. Drake thought he was done. He rolled on
me after I had him cleaned up. And tried to do it a second time as
well. When I put the saddle back on, he gave me a dirty look. And
he really didn't want to go back out. Cindy led the way so Drake had
to follow. He didn't like her too far ahead of him.
We went slow through the sand, and then trotted on. Came to the water,
and he drank, deep. Trotted and cantered more. He learned how to
canter slow on this ride. Came to the plowed field, where we walked.
Then a couple miles on to the vet check. I was very tired now.
Drake was again down to criteria as soon as I got off him.
Drake would have been happy to quit. Vet said we were fine and
could go on.
Back to the roads. Drake was fine with letting Cindy lead for a time.
Then he'd get energy and take to the front again. I was very happy
that Cindy was along. Kept both Drake and I going. We came to the
sand, walked, along the golf course, and walked more. Finished just
before 6pm. He was still down to criteria at the finish. And he
vetted out fine. His only problem throughout was low gut sounds.
Start time was 8:30. Ride time was 9:30 with 2 half hour and 1
45 minute hold. So actual riding time was 7 hours, 45 minutes.
I could barely move. He was tired. He ate a bit of hay while I had
dinner, but he didn't drink from his bucket. I drove home, let him
out, and he took off up the mountain looking for the others.
In the morning, he was still tired. He would stand and stretch out
one leg then another, sometime two legs at once. And once I saw him
doing a cat stretch bow. He still looked a bit sucked up. But by
evening looked a lot better. This morning, he was looking ready to
go again. And just as soon as I can bend my legs without hurting too
much, we will go again.
-- Wendy\|/ /\ -O- /**\ /|\ /****\ /\ / \ /**\ Here there be dragons / /\ / \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\/\/\ /\ / / \ / \ / \/\/ \/ \ /\/ \/\ /\ /\/ / / \/ \ / / \/ /\ \ / \ \ / \/ / / \/ \/ \ / \ \ / / \/ \/\ \ / \ / / \ __/__/_______/___/__\___\__________________________________________________
Wendy Milner HPDesk: wendy_milner@hp4000 Training Development Engineer HP-UX: wendy@fc.hp.com Mail Stop 46 Telnet: 229-2182 3404 E. Harmony Rd. AT&T: (970) 229-2182 Fort Collins, CO, 80525 FAX: (970) 229-4292