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Re: [RC] [RC] - heidi

Believe me  the Australians have the horses!They have not tampered
as much as you guys  in the USA  did to the original  tough
arabians.


Nik, you are right about this.  One can find "untampered" horses here in
the USA still, but they are in the minority.  And the Aussies have overall
done a better job of preserving that sort of functional breeding as the
mainstream breeding.

The thing that ran up red flags for me in Steve's report was what he said
about the changing the electrolytes, particularly increasing them for
horses not used to such high levels.  These horses all got there on
whatever e-lyte management programs they had, and to make a major increase
that the horse does not handle well could also have brought on the sorts
of neurological symptoms that Bev's horse had, IMO, as well as led to some
of the other metabolic problems.  I think Steve made a very valid
observation that this was not a good thing, and my personal take as to
what we should learn from this is that we should not mess with whatever
protocol got these horses to the point of being top-drawer competitors in
the first place.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

I don't know if anyone reported the ambient conditions--I think it was
Leonard who said that it was very much like the August ride in Oreana. 
(If that was the case, Angie, it wouldn't have been very humid--I do
recall that when I was there 5 years ago, the temps got fairly hot during
the day, but the humidity was almost nil inland where the ride was held. 
Anybody who was there care to fill in the blanks on this one?)

I do hope that discussion will bring out positive suggestions for what to
do differently in future years--and I think that Nik, Leonard, and several
others have made some valid observations that are well worth taking into
account.

Heidi



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Replies
[RC], Nik Isahak Abdullah