Ridecamp: [RC] Pyramid /elytes /chiro/ you name it

Think I'll just combine all my posting into one post so my darned name
won't be on here every other post. :-)

Just back from Pyramid Challenge at Kentucky Horse Park. WHAT A BLAST!!! 
I am going to tell the end of the story first so to lend credence to my
advice.(whether deserved or not)  It was hot...humid...LOTS of metabolic
pulls in the 25...more lameness in 50...we finished 6th in the 50, 2nd in
BC judging, and high vet score! :-D

We had such a great time.  We just got home and my kids are in total
mourning that it's over and just sulking around the house saying, "I wish
we could rewind to Friday, I can't believe we have to wait till next year
to go again"  The Pyramid Society is a group that breeds Egyptian
Arabians.  They hold a huge show at Kentucky Horse Park with Dressage in
one part of the park, and the big breed show in the big covered arena. 
This year the endurance camp was in the infield of the steeplechase track
in a beautiful grove of HUGE shade trees (about 5 feet diameter trunks). 
In the distance you could watch the Saluki dog show running it's
"Coursing" (racing after a fake rabbit) event,  hear a bluegrass festival
going on, announcers for the jumping horse show on the hill, and the
CONSTANT hum of golf carts whizzing to and fro. but there we were in our
own private grove of trees sort of segregated from all the activity
unless we wanted to join it. 

It was going to be hot and muggy but that's usually good for me. My horse
is a little thick to be a good heat horse but I think hot rides favor
truely paranoid riders and I qualify doubly there so we usually do well. 
As for electrolytes: I do not dose at all at home.  None leading up to
the ride.  I try to keep them happy about what they're eating.  I know
*I* don't want to start drinking extra on Wednesday for a Saturday ride. 

The only change I make is cutting the grain in half and mixing their feed
with wet beet pulp the feeding before we leave to make sure they're
tanked up on the trailer.  He gets his first dose the night before the
ride, with a syringe mixed with yogurt.  I stick the end of the syringe
in the side of his mouth, but then sort of pry the mouth open and aim it
straight for the back of the throat.  Make sure there's no hay or
anything in their mouth first and it goes to the back of the throat and I
don't see it again. I like the consistancy of the yogurt, it shoots way
back and sticks.  When I've mixed with water it ends up all around his
lips and coming back out.

Now for the chiro thread.  I've always had a fear of chiros. Won't go to
one myself. Never planned to take my horse to one.  But...for a few years
vets have been commenting that my horse *maybe* looked a little
off...sometimes during the ride and not at the end.  Sometimes grade one
at the end.  Always assumed that the mileage was catching up with him and
a joint was getting stiff.  I spent tons putting him on Adequan, then
he's had Legend shots, a joint injection, lots of different shoeing...not
one thing made a difference.  VERY frustrating, and I was getting self
concious and just generally sick & tired of worrying about what they'd
see in the vet check.  

Then, this winter I hauled him all the way to Lexington to the chiro that
my endurance friends use up there.  She took one look at him, said his
hip needed adjusted.  Gave him a hard bump on the rear, then put her
hands inside his leg and gave a little twist.  My thoughts were, "that's
all?"  Well...he's now done 4 straight rides, not one vet has seen one
thing.  I feel like I've got my horse back. He used to get high vet score
pretty often. This was the first time in at least 2 years and he got
straight 9's from a vet who says he doesn't give 10's. I am happy, happy,
happy, happy, happy!

I had run out of my home made electrolytes and since I had a bucket of
each Enduro-Lytes and Perform'n Win that I'd won decided I'd use them. 
Really saw no difference at all in his drinking or eating from how he
does with my home made mixture.  I used Enduro-Lytes the night before and
at the first 2 vet checks simply because I could mix them up the night
before with yogurt and with 2 horses didn't have enough syringes for the
other stuff.  I decided I'd use the Perform'n Win at the vet check since
I'd heard that when you mix it with water it gets kinda thick and you
wouldn't need a mixer.  I knew it was too hot for the yogurt without the
cooler so I figured that would be good.  As it turned out, I must have
gotten it too thin.  It was watery and I felt like a lot of it came back
out his mouth.  I took a dose with me in a baggie for the 3rd loop with a
syringe and figured I'd mix it with water on the trail.  I dumped it in
the barrel, tried to get some water in and shake it up. It liquified on
that end but not on the rest.  

Everyone else is getting their horse sponged and I'm shooting in a little
watery mixture, then hitting dry powder & clogging, then trying to add
water again. It was a pain and I think he spit a lot of it out.  I'm sure
carrying it in an old Lyte now syringe might be better, but I don't plan
to spend the $$ that cost when mine work fine for pennies.  If anybody
wants to save me some old empty tubes I'll take'em. :-)  As far as seeing
any change in my horse's eating or drinking habits from when he gets home
made, I didn't see any change.

The most difficult part of this ride is staying on course.  There are so
many distractions, and the course just cuts across open fields, around
soccer fields, and crisscrosses everywhere. Since the markers aren't
necessarily always on your right (picture tiny flags on metal sticks
going through the middle of a crosscountry course) you couldn't tell if
you were going on it forward or backwards.  Quite a few people found
themselves coming into camp when they shouldn't be there.  I managed to
take a wrong turn when we came up on a plate with the sun shining through
from the other side making it look as if the arrow was on my side...of
course there were pink markers both directions.  Debi Ivey figured it out
and we turned back.  

Note: Hey Sites, she's your "Morissette with the great legs person" 
She's remarried.  I told her your were talking about her legs on ridecamp
and she said she wasn't surprised you remembered them...since you two had
a cartwheel turning contest at the Race of Champions and you beat her!
>g<

Unfortunately, my daughter Josie got her first pull here.  Her horse
passed his vet check, but leaving at 25 miles she felt he was a little
off and had the vet re-check him.  It was slight but she  chose to pull
which was good and I was proud she made that decision.

I think there were 60 in the 50 miler. 1st was Michelle Owens on Tommy
Tiktin's big Egyptian gelding.  2nd...someone from NC? 3rd. & 4th Sandy
and Samantha Thompson, 5th Debi Ivey on Vali HiFayzera (21 years old!)
6th Kaboot & Me, 7th Charlotte...(rides for Melissa Crain) on Jasper,
8th? Teresa Mascaro. I'm sorry, don't remember next two.  BC went to
Sandy Thompson on her daughter's mare. Runner up BC...and the person who
will assume the duties of BC should Sandy not be able to fullfill
them...ME! (always the bridesmaid, never the bride)

Didn't know the winner of the 25, but ridecamp's new grandpa Ed Roley won
BC and his daughter was reserve BC! 

Hard luck award...Roxanne Cicconne who lost her horse early on, got him
back hours later, and went back out and finished.

One thing I really enjoyed about this ride was that there seemed to be
quite a few people who were new to the sport and really enthusiastic. My
favorite was a lady who was there last year to show her Saluki's and kept
wishing she had her horse there.  This year she brought her Appaloosa and
you've never seen anyone more proud of their 25 mile completion.  At the
end of each loop on the ride you had to make one circuit of the 1 mile
crosscountry track and the Saluki breed show where she was well known was
on the far side of the track. When she was making her final lap they
announced it over the loudspeaker in the breed ring and they all cheered
for their own. :-)  It was good to relive how good those early
completions felt.

The evening of the ride was also the "Grand Finale" of the Egyptian Event
horse show.  Horses whose pedigrees had been certified as having
sufficient Egyptian blood were invited to be presented in the Arena. 
There were 16 endurance horses who qualified. I was really proud of our
guys.  They looked good, the horses looked great and they did us proud.
The crowd was very appreciative of them.  I later spoke to one of the
people from the Pyramid Society who had been a spotter for our ride. He
kept telling me how impressed he was with the sport...how fit and healthy
our horses were, and the bond we had.  He said next year his wife wants
to enter.  

This was a really positive chance to show our sport off. The evening
before the ride I had met up with a lady on a jumper out for a ride and
she had a lot of questions.  She was very nice and seemed to have a good
impression of our sport too. :-))

After the endurance horses left it was time to bring in all the champions
of champions with spotlights, screaming, and anything else that would
make a horse run in circles and freak.  Actually, they looked a lot like
Kaboot at his pre-ride trot out so I couldn't talk. >g<  After they
announced the Grand Champions they invited the crowd to come out in the
arena and look them over.  It was hard to tell about their topline to
some extent because they carry a lot of fat over their backs.  You could
have set a place setting of dishes on their backs without them sliding
off. :-P  Their legs looked rather delicate...but they have them shaved
to surgical level and I wondered if they'd have looked a little bigger
with some hair on them.  Recon if they'd given me one of them I'd have
been willing to take a shot at making something out of him. >g<

Finally the evening ended with parties...several parties...all around
music drifting over the hills.  My 16 year old went to the Hunter
Pavillion with the other camp teens (oh did they have fun with the golf
carts all weekend!) and when I drifted over there at midnight or so the
endurance riders were still enduring...dancing the night away.  They had
a DJ, smoke, flashing lights, and everyone was just having a ball. 
Didn't get to bed till 2 AM...22 hours and all of it fun. :-))  

I highly recommend this ride for a family weekend. Next year I think
we'll try to go up a day early.

Angie

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