I'm writing this is hopes someone might learn from my experience. My mare,Tiki, had a tying up episode at Old Dominion this past June. I still consider myself a newbie, we've done quite a few LD's but this spring we ran our first 50. We will never know for sure what caused the episode but there were a few good guesses. One is that she was extremely fit and the week before the race I let her rest (bad idea) and continued to feed her 8 lb.a day and now that she was no longer working this was way too much feed. Another thought was that after trailering 7 hours the day before the race we arrived to hard rain, we had planned to ride that evening as one of our horses was doing his first 100 and we thought we would try and ride part of the trail back into camp but because of the rain wimped out. (also won't do that again). Anyhow, it continued to rain and turned cold. So it was 94 the day we left Tennessee and it was probably in the 50's in Virginia. When we got up to feed early in the morning our horses were shivering in the rain. We thought this was strange as they stay out 24/7 at home. As I tacked up that morning I put her crupper a little tighter than normal and when I mounted up she kind of arched her back and I thought she really doesn't like that crupper and even said something about it to my sister. That was the first warning that I ignored. As we started the race she was running close to normal for her but at about 8 miles out my sister catches up to me and I mention to her that I thought this was going to be our best race ever as she was cantering on a slack rein. This was a huge difference for her as she usually fights me almost to my exhaustion until the first vet check. Boy, do I know how to misjudge things! At about 12 miles out we cross the Shenendoah River and when we came out the other side to the first vet check she peed and it was black. The vets swarmed over her and she was given Ace and Banamine. I heard them say they didn't have enough IV fluid as they hadn't planned on needing it this early in the race and they would have to get some from another vet check. I still didn't really have a clue as to what was going on but right about then 2 horses came out of the river with cuts needing stitches and a guy comes up to me and asks if I wanted a ride with these two horses back to the barn. I said yes and led her about a 1/4 mile up to the road to the trailer (another huge no-no). I get her back to the barns and my camp and preceded to blanket her (stole a blanket from a neighbor) and watch her like a hawk. Pretty soon a very nice vet finds me and says everybody was looking for me and that I wasn't supposed to move her. She pumps 5 gal. of water into Tiki and shows me how her rear end is beginning to look like 2 loaves of bread are rising on her hips. She finally pees again and it is still black. I'm beginning to lose it. I get her down to the barns and they start her on IV's (she got 20 liters) and send for some Dantrolene. When they get it we empty the pills in a pail and put 5 more gal. in her. Now we wait! You can't imagine how awful it was. I stressed out so bad I locked my back up which was a huge help on the way home when everyone else expected me to drive as they had just done a 50 and a 100! After about 12 hours she finally starts peeing clear and things are looking up. When we finally got home she continued to get Ace for a week, the vets were now worried about laminitis, and she was stalled and taken off all grain. We did bloodwork and when it came back her CPK (enzyme levels) were elevated over 40,000, somewhere around 100-300 is normal. Now my vet is freaking out as he hasn't seen CPK levels that high but he gets on the phone to the vets at the OD and they reassure him. I was told I could start riding her again when her CPK levels drop below 1000 and that took about 5 weeks. She seems fine now but has founder lines on all 4 feet which serves to remind me daily. I worry about her constantly now and am even riding another horse about half the time to try and give her a break. She is still the most sure footed trail horse I have ever ridden so I may just put her back on the trails and give up on the endurance stuff. Time will tell. Linda Norton
