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Norco ride "The good, the bad the ugly"/long



Hi all, Lynne told me to write that header!   Well I thought Norco Riverdance was a real good ride. Norco is "horsetown USA" and all the streets have riding trails. The stores also have hitching rails and pens in front of them and people ride horses to all the eating establishments. I saw the biggest Percheron ridin bareback all over that town.
     At the ride,   I was the Vet Secretary.  I sure did learn a lot from a different point of view and highly recommend volunteering at rides as part of a rider's journey of knowledge!  Lynne is an excellent ride manager.  We wound up with 6 vets at intervals, and 3 of them full time.  I learned a few tips that I can pass on to riders that would help the vets.  I did notice that 99% of the riders were very nice and very thankful to the volunteers and vets and we appreciated that. A couple of folks , "Got Tense" and they were pulled, maybe they were worried and that made them "tense".  Most folks who got pulled were very good natured about it,  wanting to go on to ride another day.  The number one tip I can pass on is this one.  If you have some time on your hands on a rainy day or something, get a friend and play "vet check".  Teach the horses not to spin around and around and around and nipping and throwing the head and kicking at the pretend vet.  It was actually a scarey job to paint the numbers on the horse butts.  Some horses I opted not to, and let the riders do it themselves.  Also some riders when they trot out for the vets, they run directly in front of the horses. I was worried they would get stepped on. The vets cannot see the horse move very well when a rider does that. It's better if the rider runs along side of the horse. Also I think if the horse is mannerly and cooperative they get a more lengthy vet exam then the one who is trying to kick the vet in the head. I like my horse to get a good vet exam and I'm sure most riders do too.      Also another tip I may add is that if a person brings a dog to camp, it is not a good idea to put it on a 25 foot chain and let it lay in the middle of the road. I saw a horse get hung up in a dog chain in the dark at 6:00 a.m and the horse got cut up legs. The dog wasn't thrilled either.  I don't know if that horse finished the ride.    One thing that the vets were trying to teach and coach the riders was to get the horses wet and scrape the water off to cool them.  Many horses were panting from heat. Remember Karate Kid the movie? Wax on Wax off?  Its like that, "Water on, water off".  The water serves as an insulator and keeps the heat inside.  We had a 98degree temp at Vet check three, and high humidity. Lots of big "thunder boomers" clouds as  Heidi called them. Clothing stuck to us.  Some of the riders needed to take better care of themselves too to cool off. You cant ride intelligently if your own brains are frying.  But no riders got heat stroke. One rider got an ice-cream cone, and one got a lottery ticket, somewhere on the trail.  At vet three, there were a lot of families that use the area as a park. There was a woman there with a bunch of kids , and a rider let the kids touch the horse. The woman asked what we were doing in this heat?  The rider replied, "We are riding fifty miles, and if it wasn't so hot, we'd have to ride farther".  The woman was amazed!
  I have to mention Fritz.    Fritz Bronner who was on the cover of Endurance News in March April riding in a British Queen's Draggons Guard 1879 uniform...he is a member of 'The War Horse and Militaria Heritage Foundation"   a group who rides in full authentic uniforms, and does historical reinactments.  check it out at  www.WARHORSEFOUNDATION.com    He was riding in a Prussian Cavalry uniform and carried a lance with a flag the whole day.   He looked hotter than hell in his wool uniform coat, but then he later shed down to stable dress. The horse was a very good boy and did well.  Imagine that barn conversation between horses!  ha ha.   Everyone enjoyed seeing Fritz on the trail, it was too cool. 
      When we got back to base camp, we found that there was a horse who had been ridden maybe too hard, and got too over heated?  He had a temperature of 108.  Now it was intersting because Fred said that when he goes to rides he usually packs 3 or 4 cases of IV Solution but this time he thought, "ah heck I'll just bring all my cases"  8 of them. I think he used 5 on this horse alone.  Hugh said it would be a good idea to bring a thermometer in your saddle bag. Wouldn't hurt!  (Water on and water off helps too)  Anyway the horse collapsed and was seizing with convulsions and the call went out for help, and every person in the vicinity provided man-power, water, ice, alcohol  Someone told me they put 100 gallons of water on the horse at least.  They gave the horse medications, Rompun I think, and I think Banamine.  Finally they got the horse up and under a shade tree and the horse was eating hay that they had put in a water trough. The horse peed some very dark urine and the vets were happy to see pee come out. The rider was lucky that didn't happen somewhere between vet check three and basecamp, because the area was inaccessable to vehicles and the window of opportunity for saving that horses life was very narrow.  I was taught that hyperthermic horses are at risk for brain damage, blindness, DIC (a clotting disorder).  My neighbor who is a vet tells me that this happens sometimes at the Sant Anita race track and they put a hose similar to a firehose and spray the horses down. and of course the horse got an ice-cube enema.  So that was pretty scary, and there were a few horses with mild lameness's after the ride, and some with some cramps.  A couple got IV's.     We heard from two riders who did a submarine thing down in the waterhole,  and they were lucky to lose their stirrups off the saddle instead of getting dragged and drowned. Thats just IMO.   Yay! Stirrups really do fall off when you need them to.  Glad to know it. They could rig up a temporary stirrup out of a crupper! or a lead rope with a loop in it! 
   I was happy to see and meet some of the horses I hear about on ridecamp all the time. And riders too.  And I must say that by vet check three the horses were all trying to kiss and snuggle with me, the same ones who wanted to kick me for putting a number on their butt. They "Saw God, Elvis and Jimmy Hoffa" was the saying of the day.
     I was happy to see and meet Melody with her son and daughter , and good to see Jonathon Bowman and Kitt again, after our adventures at Tevis. Kitt recognized me and was very sweet and Jonathon told me "You can't have him!!!" Ah Jonathon, standing in the way of true love.  Kitt and Jonathon top tenned and got 1st place heavy weight. Jonathon was riding with his boarder Sondra, on Melody's former horse and they top tenned also, on Sondra's first fifty!.  Sondra and me drove around Norco and got hamburgers fridaay night. We noticed how there are few street lights in the city of Norco.
   I also have to mention Cheryl.  We saw her at vet check one with bulky bandaids on her face, and a burgeoning black eye and swollen nose. Apparently she got a head banger from her horse right at ride start and was gushing blood all over her clothes and stuff. She made her husband bandaid her up, went on and rode. She came in first place. She went to the hospital and got four stitches and then came back for awards.
    The camp was real good, real nice water truck in use. Brand new and clean out houses, rated 8 on the outhouse scale of 0-10.  Tens have sinks and mirrors you know.  We had real good food, and plenty of it, coffee in the morning, and cakes for dessert. The prizes are quite nice also. Great job Lynne!
     After the ride awards, I left to go home, and noticed how dusted my truck windshield was and it was hard to see. Then it was getting dark, and I was on the Norco roads with no street lights. I was gonna go to a gas station and was my windows.  On sixth street, there were many many cars coming at me, they were going to  the Norco fair up at Ingalls park. Lots of headlights. Oh and there was the Percheron again, and other horses kicking up dust. I couldn't wait to get on the freeway where I could see!  Then there was an accident two cars ahead of me. I pulled to the right, and there were people running into the road. Fist I thought someone had hit a dog, but then I saw, it was a kid! A teenage boy.  So I had to stop, cause I'm a nurse and it's hardwired into me. The driver had hit the kid as he ran across the street. The driver had been at the Norco ride, I don't know if it was a rider or a crew, but it was a participant. If this person needs a witness for anything, please contact me.  The kids with the accident victim boy all smelled of alcohol . They wouldn't have passes a breath test I betcha.  I tried to help, and all I could do was calm the kids, and check the boy for bleeding and collapsed lungs which he did not have, but he had a very bad fractured femur, probably compound because of the deformity, and I tried to keep him still. He was screaming and swearing and thrashing. I was worried about a broken back. I made his friends, (boys) hold his hands. The paramedics came and they put an I.V. in him and I held his head still and talked to him and they cut his clothes off and they put his leg in a splint device and it was very painful.  We got him on a back board,  and  taped him down (Duct tape is a woman's friend) and then the police were there, 4 sqaud cars, ambulance, paramedics, firemen. They got good medical care there in Norco.  The parents were called by the friends, but I never saw them.  When they got him safely in the ambulance I left, and it was hard to get out of that traffic. That was a very traumatic event, I always have felt real bad when I've been at accident scenes, a few times in my life. It's much easier when working on people right at the hospital.  If anyone knows the driver and they need someone to speak for them, let me know because I am sure it was an accident, and partly poor and impaired judgement on the part of the teenagers running across the road in that traffic condition.    yours,   Beth Glover
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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