Hot & Humid Weather

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Nancy Muller Farafix@aol.com
A couple more comments.  One camper noted that usually a 20 min hold is adequate for a 40 mile CTR, esp. as riders are going slower than in an endurance ride.  A few yrs ago I rode the Old Dominion 50 when it was a really hot & humid day (my pit crew was really complaining!).  I top tenned that ride with a ride time of 8 hours, which is a speed of just over 6 mph, just a little faster than a comptetitive trail ride pace.  We had 3 stops on the 50, as well as really cold water to put on the horse both at the pit stops and in the mountain streams we crossed.  In hot/humid weather on a tough 40, one stop of 20 minutes doesn't seem like much, IMHO, especially since in CTR you can't use ice water to cool off the horse.  In my limited experience, it seems that if you can keep the horse cooled off, the horse does better.  Sponging a hot horse on a humid day with lukewarm water doesn't do much (which is often the situation at a CTR midpoint where the water can't be cooled and often has been sitting out in buckets for the riders to arrive).
On conditioning in hot/humid weather.  I keep my horses on electrolytes --- just throw the cheap stuff in a little feed every day, as well as have salt blocks available during the summer.  I also always bring some water or gatorade for myself, even tho I only ride for 2 hrs or less.  One time I forgot my water & started to get disoriented on the way home (on trails I'd ridden for yrs), so drank some stream water, hoping I wouldn't get E coli or some other devastating thing.  Fortunately, the water got me reoriented & I got home ok & suffered no gastric after affects.  So, don't forget to take care of youself as well.

Nancy
Md


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