Frozen?Not Osceola/FL

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

Jean Wonser cpfjean@bellsouth.net
I know Howard can be funny but this is real wimpy 
stuff.  

True we had a near frost Jan. 15, and it was nippy to get
organized for The Osceola start at 530 am on 100;  But by the
50 start at 730am it was dawn and rapidly warming  (hi Jacksonville
that day mid 60's).  

In fact, the three of us together on yellow loop had steaming
horses at the first VC.  We had to blanket their rumps of course
but that is about as good as it gets when you get tired of
90F-90% in July.

Actually people emailed from Ohio on their return saying
they all went into shock returning into the frozen north
at l2 degrees.

Steph asked a question about elkes I have not seen addressed.
Where are all the mouthy FL riders now on a question of actual
importance??

On the average I put a horse preparing to compete on elkes about
Wednesday prior to the haul, and keep him on about 4 oz a day,
am,pm 2 each;  If he doesn't drink at Camp upon arrival I 
give him additional by syringe to be sure he gets it down.  I do
not put it on food on this routine.

Since heat dissapation is the single biggest job of an
Endurance horse the elkes help assure he will drink.  I also
keep  my competition horses body clipped year round.  It is
much easier to put on a blanket or two than take off insulating
hair during competition.  

There were several pulls at Osceola that simply would not drop
into acceptable heart rates.  I suspect, but nothaving more info
fromVet, they may have been horses unable to shed the heat with
heavy coats.  We ;did  not have much trail water this year either;

I sponge a hot horse every 15 minutes or when the hair dries; 
The noon hour was pretty warm and my horse was sweating well 
enough to get sponged until around 3 pm that day.  

When a horse is hot and water not available the rider must slow down.
One pull was certainly not going that fast, pulled ahead of me,
who rode it in 7:49;  But then if horse could not keep cool, it 
was in fact too fast.

Well just wanted to throw out some thought for those of you
who bring heavy coated horses into Florida rides.

The humidity here is usually 60 % or higher most days by noon.  
When we do not see tails with static fizz it is probably at 
least 60% (plus or minus);  So a 69F and 60% day is still pretty 
stressful to the horse, although as a rider I just drank and 
did not need to douse my head, or even pull helmet.  It is true
I shed my oilskin at l4 miles (l0 am) and got down to flanned shirt 
and aT by noon.  But the horses were undoubtedly pretty
warm.  Riders often do not realize just how warm horses
get, I think.

So if the horse is drinking normally, eating, I dose in
the elkes without hesitation sometimes 4 oz. at a VC, but
always 2 oz. nomatter what the weather is doing, and at least
once dose after the ride, and next day;  I use Ridgeway mix, 
home formula.

I have a couple metabolic pulls through the years while speeding
up conditioned horses;  But I manage to get the job done ok as
my horses usually Finish--unless they get nailed by the
proverbial 'rock with his name'.

The next Osceola Endurance will be January 13, 200l, Lake City
FL,  We will have flier ready by June probbly and in SERA news by 
Fall, also on AERC page;

Thanks to everybody who helped and rode,
Jean Wonser, ride secy.