Tevis IVs and metabolic pulls

[Onefarmgirl@aol.com]

Since I received a lot of private replys (about 25 in addition to the public 
posts on RC) I thought I would take a second to summarize the input, though 
it essentially comprises a "negative report".   So, here it is in a  
nutshell:   

We've got a problem, and we don't know what it is.

At least we pretty much agree on the problem.    With one exception, everyone 
who replied felt it was NOT acceptable to just recognize that many horses in 
this sport will end up needing 'artificial' forms of post ride care, 
including pharmaceuticals and hydration.   Our opinionated and varied group 
:-) all seem to feel that running the horses to this degree of metabolic 
imbalance crosses a boundary between fun aggressive riding and poor 
horsemanship.  

We don't know the cause of the problem.   Several good suggestions were made: 
inexperienced riders, poorly conditioned horses, overly competitive riders, 
trailering stresses, etc.   Likewise, good common sense solutions were 
proposed:  better educate new riders, require qualifying rides for higher 
distances or difficult rides, get folks to ride at slower paces :-) etc. etc. 
  However, in spite of the fact that many of these ideas seem sensible, so 
far, none hold up to even cursory review of facts about who gets into trouble 
or when.   Anecdotal evidence indicates that more "seasoned" riders have 
fewer problems, but they certainly aren't immune.   The completion/pull 
reviews provided by Karen Chaton and others aren't controlled research by any 
means,  but don't seem to show any  immediately clear correlation between 
rider experience, horse experience, or hauling distance on who gets into 
trouble.  

We desperately need the research being proposed and conducted by Tom Ivers,  
Barney Fleming, Susan Garlinghouse, and others.    My own opinion is that it 
is premature to implement any possible 'solutions' because we just don't have 
enough information.   We ALL need to think about realistic ways to gather 
better, useable data about how to predict/prevent metabolic crises in our 
endurance athletes. 

pat farmer