Re: RC: The problem with sponging

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/15/00 7:33:21 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
guest@endurance.net writes:

<< 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  >>

Well, I will ask the obvious (as a long-time manager who has put on desert 
rides with 75 to 150+ riders where every drop of water is hauled, both to 
camp and on the trail, as well as multi-days in the desert where it is just 
about as bad, and who has hauled literally TONS of water to remote water 
sets)--why not put out sufficient water for sponging, and some sponge 
buckets?  When water is in short supply, if one dips a sponge in the water 
and applies it to the horse, FAR less runs off than if you dump a scoopful on 
him and most of it runs off onto the ground?  My experience is that I have to 
haul FAR less water for spongers than for scoopers....

Heidi