horse eating mud/dirt

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

> this past May, in East Texas, the trail crossed several really nice>
clear  streams (a rarity in this area!).  I thought, oh, good, my horse
can  have  some nice clean water.  He wouldn't touch the stuff.  But when
we got out on 
> some open dirt roads, there were lots of puddles filled with >water 
the color  and consistancy of chocolate milkshakes,

A little advice...if you ever get so thirsty you have to drink on the
trail you'd better follow his lead.  You never know what's in a creek
upstream.  Just took me seeing a dead bloated dog in a pristine mountain
stream *once* for me to understand why Kaboot doesn't drink at streams. 
The nice thing about a mudhole is you can see what's in it...and it
probably came from rain water.  

Another thing I've noticed. When I ran in a triathlon (don't be
impressed, it was run/bike/ride and my goal was to still be running when
I got out of sight of the viewers) was that the guys gave me icewater and
I couldn't drink it.  I was really wishing they'd given me a big glass of
tap water so I could guzzle it.  Creek water is cold, mudholes are
warmer.  

One more thing I've heard is that if there's gravel on the road the
mudholes may contain some calcium. Anybody know if that's true?  I've
learned to watch for nice deep tiretrack type mudholes on the side of the
road.  Horses usually haven't stirred them up and Kaboot thinks they're
*just right*.

Angie
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