Ridecamp: Re: [RC] musings re "the good old days"

I can chime in here with some of my personal experiences:

1)  On my very first endurance ride, I was mounted on a horse that had no
conditioning at all.  I had no mentor to teach me anything, and I felt that
a ranch horse that had been walking up and down a hill every day, to and
from water, was fit to do a 50 mile ride (in extremely hilly country, to
boot).  At the first vet check, 12 miles into the ride, there was no water.
Water at that point wasn't considered necessary in those days, 32 years ago.
At the 1-hour vet check, my non-conditioned horse was alert, but had a
flaccid anal sphincter (recognized now as a sign of extreme fatigue).  The
vet noticed this, but said the horse looked alert and he would let me go on.
Farther down the trail, my horse felt hot to the touch, but wasn't sweating.
Even I, with my lack of experience, realized something was wrong.  I saw a
tub beside the dirt road-trail, with a faucet.  Great relief......my horse
could now drink.  Wrong!  The tub was empty and the faucet yielded no water.
I kept on going.  Finally we came to water, and finally  I reached a paved
road where my husband awaited with a trailer.  It had taken me 12 hours to
go 45 miles, the ride was over, other riders had already eaten the BBQ, and
there I was, completely dejected and humiliated by my failure.  But the good
news is, despite what the horse went through, he survived to ride another
day.  He never became much of an endurance horse.  He was a lightly made
running QH, with an extremely nervous temperament.

2)  Fast forward to many years later.....I'm riding my favorite little Arab
gelding, who had developed a tendency to thump.  It was a hot day and at the
1-hour vet check, he was thumping.  A well-known and knowledgeable vet told
me, "We aren't as concerned about thumps now as we used to be."  That was
the popular theory of that time.  I went out of the vet check, and not
surprisingly, the horse began to slow down.  I was all alone on the trail
and soon we came to a water trough.  I was so relieved!  But the trough had
been drained by all the horses that preceded us, so he had no water.  We
went on to the next vet check.  Again, a vet passed us, though I was very
concerned.  I thought, "I feel this is wrong, but surely the vet must know
better than I."  WRONG!!!!!  I rode out of the vet check, and within 1/2
mile, the horse groaned and was into colic.  I dismounted and started to
lead him back to the vet check, when the vet and his P&R crew were driving
out.  I had been the last one in and he was clearing the check point.  My
horse had to be treated on the spot.  He too, lived to ride another day,
even compete successfully, but hydration was always a serious concern for
him.

So don't let anyone believe that everything in the "good old days" was
better, or even much different, than it is now.  We were just more ignorant
then than we are now, and sometimes just LUCKY.

Barbara McCrary







----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, June 03, 2002 11:56 AM
Subject: [RC] musings re "the good old days"


> All of this is JMO, so everybody feel free to hit delete now.  I keep
> hearing comments here and there about how in the old days, horses turned
in
> wonderful performances with nothing more than a handful of hay, no
> electrolytes, etc etc.  The way you hear it from some folks (and I'm not
> picking on anyone specific whatsoever), the horses of old all danced their
> ways down the trail without hardly breaking a sweat, everybody always
> finished, everything was ducky.  So the conclusion there to be made is why
> do we need all this new research, all these electrolyte formulations, all
> these new things when everyone did so well in the old days?
>
> Maybe I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but I'm not so sure things
> were so wonderful from the horse's perspective.  I've talked to vets that
> talk about lame or thumping horses being allowed to go on that these days
> would be pulled in a heartbeat (and saw the same thing for myself).  You
> sure didn't hear about commonplace nine hour 100s and sub four-hour 50s
> (though maybe there were...Bob?) back then.  I suspect there weren't as
many
> rides available and except for the trailer race crowd, horses got more
> off-time between rides instead of riding back to back top ten rides week
> after week.  I know of more than one horse that won a big, hard 100-mile
> ride back then without anything more than a little hay and water, was
> supposedly "retired" but in reality had so little kidney function left he
> couldn't handle anything more than standing in a pasture looking exhausted
> for the rest of his life.  I think it was alot more commonplace then
anyone
> let on, and I think that's *still* more commonplace than we're admitting.
>
> I also think the endurance crowd is different than it was a ways back.  I
> didn't start hanging around until the late 80's, but even I've noticed a
LOT
> more relatively inexperienced owners and riders showing up---no flames on
> any of them, but alot of people are showing up that possibly don't
> understand the value of LSD, that peeing coffee doesn't just mean he needs
a
> drink and that it's not normal for a horse to do that funny hiccuping
thing.
>
>  I'm not saying that across the board, endurance riders were better
horseman
> 20 years ago---but alot of them were.  And a better horseman can "get
away"
> with a lot more than a novice rider might.  Maybe the novice rider needs
the
> extra benefits of better el'yte formulations, better feeds, better
saddles.
> Maybe just to do better themselves, but more importantly, maybe to help
the
> horse avoid injury better.
>
> And I guess my other thought (which is still JMO) is that yeah, most
horses
> could probably survive endurance just fine without anything more than hay
> and water during a hot, hard ride.  But are they doing BETTER than if they
> aren't given better feeds, better tack, better elyte formulas?  I don't
> think so, not in most cases if the innovations are used right (there are
> always exceptions).  Alot of riders back then also rode in blue jeans and
> "survived" just fine, but boy, I'm sure happy there's such a thing as
lycra
> tights these days.  Am I gonna ride in blue jeans today because that's how
> they used to ride and gee, they seemed to do okay?  Not freakin' likely.
>
> And if that's the case, then what possible excuse could anyone have for
not
> making the extra effort to use new knowledge and provide the very best of
> care to any endurance horse before, during or after a ride?  How dare any
> rider not do or at least consider using every available tool just because,
> "well, this stuff wasn't around thirty years ago and they still finished
> rides..."  Horses died or were injured back then because of things that
> weren't known, and horses will continue to die or be injured today if
their
> riders don't learn everything they can about their horse and what the new
> information is telling us.
>
> To do otherwise is irresponsible to the horse, and they deserve much
better.
>
> JMO.
>
> Susan G
>
>
>
>
>
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 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
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