Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

To clarify some things mentioned about WEC race day:

The weather was great. It never got too hot. It did warm up for about 4 
hours during the event. But a lot nicer than they trained for or 
anticipated. From about 3 o'clock on we did not cool the water bottles 
in ice water as the air temp and wind were nice.

EACH USA rider had their own support vehicle out on the race course. 
Each vehicle had plenty of bottled water to give to their assigned rider 
for the horse.  When handing off the opened bottle we had to be sure to 
dump out about three inches before the rider grabbed it. Otherwise the 
rider got wet on the leg and places. We would yell to them as to if this 
was a new bottle or refill, so they could take a swig for themselves 
before pouring the rest on the horse. When the riders were riding 
together there was at least three vehicles leapfrogging to supply them. 
I think we did even better than the leaders!

Last, in conflict with the heat stroke theory, ALL the riders rode with 
temp gauges. They had been practicing with these from the start of the 
selection process. During the ride all reported to staff about the temps 
of their horses and were encouraged or slowed down depending up the 
horse's temps.
NONE of them ever got critical and I personally do not think Bev's horse 
got overheated.

My question and observation about the amount of water we actually put on 
these horses is thus:
We put SO MUCH water on them, was this possibly a mistake? Did this shut 
down their need or desire to drink and maybe affect the adding of so 
many lytes?
Steve Shaw


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