Re: thanks

[Magnumsmom@aol.com]

Hi Chris,

You're more than welcome.  ;-)

The 3 of "us" who were trying to help were:
Terri and Kate, who ran right over to shoo your boy
back up off the ground and I had the bucket and bran
and grabbed Maryben who in turn grabbed Dr. Craig Evans.
We were not the only 3 crew trying to help though, just
the 3 I know.

The reason I'm posting this to ridecamp is because I
wanted to tell everyone just how fast this happened.

This horse was calmly standing around for at least an
hour if not two before the trouble started.  I am 
shocked at how fast this happened.  We were lounging
enjoying our last 45 minutes before our riders were
due in.  This horse was easily in our view and had been
for quite a while.

This horse simply thought he'd like to scratch his
back or something.  There was just a bit of sand and
it looked too inviting.  He went down, but it appeared
that the effort to get back up put his rear muscles
into a cramp of sorts.  Still, he was just being pissy,
not in trouble.

Less than 60 seconds later, he started being real pissy.
Then he started stomping his back legs around.  This
is when we started watching in ernest.  We sorta had
time to say to each other "um, you think that horse
looks a bit colicy?" and that's when you started walking
the horse around a bit.  But then he went down again
and we knew he was in trouble.

By the time he was up again and we had gotten the
attention of Maryben and the vet (initially we just
were going to give him a bran mash...), within less
than 2 minutes later, his whole abdomen and back end
were trembling and he was not a happy horse.

Dr. Craig stopped his part of the vetline and went
right over.

It all took less than 10 minutes... maybe not more
than 5.  And he'd been standing there fine for probably
an hour and a half.

Fortunately, it appeared to be just an electrolyte
problem / hydration.  He wasn't happy, but he was
out of trouble very quickly.

And I learned something...  I learned how a horse can
look *fine* and then just go downhill almost too fast
to catch the problem.

My friend Gale mentioned that this is why it makes her
nervous to leave the horses in a corral and go have
dinner.  If they rolled and cramped, they could be in
trouble before you know it.  Better to remember to keep
an eye on them even after the ride is over and they've
vetted out with all A's.

Is this why we saw Dr. Nancy Elliot cruising through
camp several times Saturday evening???

I'm really glad he's fine.  I sure wish we could explain
to him that he'd feel a lot better if he'd just drink
more on the trail...

:) - Kathy Myers
AERC#14992
in No. Cal. with Magnum the TB ex-racer
and Mr Maajistic... resident endurance Arab