The problem with sponging

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

K S SWIGART   katswig@earthlink.net


There are a number of problems with sponging here in the Pacific
Southwest and Southwest, the biggest one being that there just 
isn't enough water on the trail.

You can't "sponge on the fly" because the only way for that to 
even remotely work is if the sponge is already wet.  If the sponge
is dry, it will merely float on the top of any water you throw it
at picking up about a milliliter of water...and what is the point
in that.

If you only see water on the trail about once every 20 miles (if
at all), and the relative humidity is below 60%, then the only way
to keep your sponge wet would be to soak it yourself with water
from your waterbottles.

And if you dip your sponge into a water trough that ride management
has put out for horses to drink (or exists on the trail already),
then you will be breaking one of the cardinal rules of Southwestern
endurance riding which is "don't sponge out of water that other
horses are going to drink as we would prefer that our horses not
get their electrolytes that way."  Many of these troughs will, in
fact, have big signs on them that say "NO SPONGING!!!!!"

In this region, a sponge on a string is virtually useless.

Frequently, you aren't allowed to scoop out of them either because
water is in limited supply and needs to be left for the horses
behind you that are going to want to drink it (which is one of the
advantages of riding drag at Death Valley...you get to pour 
whatever water is left over on your horse, since there is nobody
behind you...however, the disadvantage is that sometimes people
have scooped out of it anyway---and you can tell because there
is water on the ground around the trough---and the trough is
empty...so your horse doesn't even get to drink).

Generally speaking, in this area, you just don't get to use water
to cool your horse on the trail.  Your horse has to use its own
internal cooling mechanisms to cool itself.  Which, admittedly, is
much more effective in low humidity conditions.

So you won't find me riding with a sponge in my hand...besides...
it would get in the way of my camera. :)

kat
Orange County, Calif.