Re: Re: CTR vs endurance for learning

["Dyane Smith" <sunibey@sisqtel.net>]

> In a message dated 9/26/99 6:10:34 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> michrowe@frontier.net writes:
>
> << I don't know that CTR is any more of a learning forum for riders.  I
wish
> it
>  were, but there's no one there either talking to newbies about
conditioning,
>  feeding, cooling, or how to watch your horse for distress.  People can
get
>  their horses into just as much trouble, just at a slower pace :-) >>

In my experience, sometimes weather can cause problems which are a surprise
to the experts.  At my first ride, in the desert in March, the ride was very
hot, but when we got back in the late afternoon, the weather went from very
hot to very cold in a few minutes.  A lot of horses, both in novice and open
(CTR) got very sick.  No one had prepared us because I think the vet,
horsemanship judge and management had not really thought about it.   I
learned the most on that ride from my horse.  I was washing him with
sunwarmed water and he kept trying to drink the wash water.  The next ride,
I left a bunch of buckets out in the sun to heat and put electrolites in
them.  At the end of the ride, he drank happily and was fine.> >
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That ride also taught me that it's very helpful to have a vet on call and
nearby who can help when horses get in trouble.  It all happened so fast but
fortunately there was a vet there who was learning how to be a ride vet.  He
was up all night tending to sick horses.  It really gave me a picture of how
quickly things can go very wrong.
Dyane
N. Cal.
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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=