 |
RE: [RC] Keeping horse too warm - Ranelle RubinI have a Doc son who is like his dad and a tank. We have yet to do our first ride, but I find a cotton anti-sweat sheet to work well to keep him cooling, absorb the sweat, yet not overheat him. Ranelle -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Winter, Randy or Cheryl Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2005 3:35 PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Keeping horse too warm Had another learning experience this weekend at the Black Hills ride in south Dakota, which I want to add to a top notch ride that should be on your want to do list. Well marked, nice awards, fun atmosphere, with beautiful trail.. Now for the rest of the story. Rode most of the day by myself, as my mare does better that way when it is possible to do so. The weather was good riding weather, cool overcast, and the rain held off until about the last 40 minuets of my ride. completed with cold rain, brisk wind, ride time about 7 hours on moderate terrain. Wanted to be sure she had time to eat, take her tack off and relax before presenting to vet out. Stripped tack, put on heavy blanket to protect hind quarters and back, light sponging of legs and belly and monitored her until her pulse came down. WELLLLLL it kept hanging up there. Now I am getting worried, because we are getting along in the hour. Took her out to graze green grass, walk lightly, buckled up the blanket to keep warm. Still no good. Took her to the vetting area, expecting to DQ. Just on a hunch I felt under the blanket on her hindquarters, and she was sweating a lot, and hot to the touch, neck was cool. This is a heavier muscled Arab, and I knew she has to be cooled out to get her pulse down, but in these conditions, everything told me to cover her up. With about 4 mins. to go, I jerked the WINTER BLANKET off her, let her stand in the cold air and her pulsed dropped to 48...... Lesson learned.... for heavy muscled horses, be sure to pull the heat out of them before covering up, or be sure to use a COOLER, and not a heavy blanket until they can dump the heat. For all the concern about keeping her muscles warm, we kept her too warm so she could not cool and dump the excess heat. After we completed, I took her back, put the blanket back on her, pulled it up to expose her hind quarters, washed them down and swiped off water until the muscles were cooled off, then dropped the blanket and she dried up nicely under the blanket instead of keeping up the sweating. So, there ya go, another thing to remember even on a cool, cold finish, may still need to pull the heat off of some of these horses. The fine balance of keeping warm, but still dumping heat. Cheryl =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|