Re: Pain Releif in Hard Rides

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/6/99 12:55:24 AM Pacific Standard Time,
vmaxept@cococo.net writes:

<< IF I have to bute my horse after a ride-- I over rode her..
  >>

Bingo!  Not too many comments raise my ire more than, "I need to bute my horse
after this ride so I can make the next ride in the schedule."  Nope, if you
NEED to bute your horse after this ride, you need to go home, throw your
schedule out the window, and give your horse some time to heal up, either
biomechanically or physically.  The other thing that folks don't seem to grasp
sometimes is that it takes TIME to recover metabolically, just like it does
biomechanically.  Fortunately, when a horse is lame, the rider can see the
problem from the outside.  I don't know HOW many times I have seen horses
crash metabolically, though, and told riders to TAKE SOME TIME OFF, and there
they are, back in 2 weeks, looking at me like I am a nutcase, and telling me
that their home vet "looked" at the horse on Monday and thought it was fine.
Yep, I'll bet he looked just fine.  But he isn't.  And all too often he just
crashes again, sometimes a lot worse the next time around...

Heidi Smith, DVM