"they pulled her
saddle, poured water on her, and she just layed down and
died,"
From my experience at the track:
This may have been the
factor. Cold water poured on a hot horse can shock the
system.
After a race or a hard
work out, it can take an hour "or more" to walk a horse
"down" . When racing at Los Al in December it can be quite
cold after the sun goes down. I never let the grooms wash the horses
immediately after a race.
We brought them back to
the barn put wool* coolers on them as fast as we could and put them on the
hotwalkers. We tried to avoid having the horse stand still but rather continued
walking until they were "walked down".When they were
sufficiently cooled out we washed the face and legs and then continued the
"walk down".
Not fun if you were in the last race which ends after midnight . By the
time you get out of the barn it could be 3 AM. Two hours of sleep before you
start the day again. We trained six mornings a week and raced
four nights Thursday through Sunday. My clients talked
about where they wanted to go on vacation all I could think about was when I
could get eight hours of sleep.
Bev Scott Ocala FL.
*Wool coolers pull the excess water off the horses hair. After the horse
was walked down it was then rubbed/massaged with alcohol and then its legs
were wrapped in mud. If they didn't get a bath after the race we bathed
them the next day in the heat of the sun before their morning walk.
If heat stroke is suspected I would sponge cold water on the head
but never on the body until a horse is sufficiently cooled out/walked down.
