[RC] Spring Fever, Anemia and Urine Crystals (very broad topic email!) - TypeF \(Jackie Floyd\)
To my fellow online endurance buddies,
I did manage to get to Cuyama with James and rode
the 50 the first day. Only rode for XP miles on Day 2 and 3. If James were Tank
mentally (which he's not), he could have gone all three days easily. He's
conditioned enough to go slow. But his brain said go fast, so I decided 50 miles
of jigging was enough.
As for Tank, he'll be going to Davis soon as I can
get an appointment. He has been slowly going downhill this last year and no
amount of tests with several different vets and lots of money have solved the
problem to date. Many xrays, including ulcer, intestinal and hock and stifle,
and finally ... blood test and urine samples. Why we didn't start there, I'll
never know. But at any rate, it seems he is anemic and has crystals and sludge
in his urine. I was instructed by one of the vets to put him on Red Cell or
Visorbin and start feeding him 3 lbs. of cob a day. One to help with the anemia
and the other to lower the ph in his urine to dissolve the crystals. He's been
on that a month and a half. Some days I can have a pretty good training ride and
others, like yesterday totally bomb. We were only out about 20 minutes when he
said he'd had enough. I suspect kidney something. Hopefully, Davis can help me
because I'm not ready to give up on this great horse yet. Next to my husband,
he's the love of my life and I miss riding him terribly. If anyone has anything
they'd like to share with me on the subject of anemia and high urine
ph/crystals, I'll take any and all comments.
I wanted desperately to go to High Desert, but I
made the right choice in not going since the Hwy. 80 over Donner was closed on
Sunday and I would have had to camp out in the snow somewhere like Les Carr did
overnight at a gas station in Truckee. Not my idea of fun. So I'll try again
next year for that Series blanket! Too bad, too, because The Duck was vetting
and I was going to offer a Riders of the Lost Duck special again on my book.
That went over great guns at Cuyama and I sold an entire case!
It looks like it might possibly start to be really
Spring now here in California (at least the rain has stopped for a couple of
days) and I can now think about really training again and picking rides!
I'm so excited by that prospect that I decided to put my books on sale.
Spring Fever price is $19.95 (reg. $24.95) plus shipping or buy two and get
free shipping. Although it's not about dates, I am including a CD with Region
Updates with each purchase. Plus updates are always available via the
website with proof of purchase. A portion of the proceeds go to benefit AERC
Trails and Research, so keep that in mind. www.enduranceguide.com I will not
be doing another version of the guide until March of 2007 so this one is still
good for another year. Besides ride descriptions, it's full of wonderful stories
submitted from riders all over the country, (my favorite is written by 27-time
Tevis finisher Barbara White) plus the overnight stay, vet, farrier, etc.
sections. Things I want to add for next time are restaurants close to rides that
people like to frequent (like the Buckhorn Cafe in Cuyama ... mmmmm .... best
chicken fried steak I've ever had!) and camp recipes, besides a bunch of new
ride stories and pictures from all of you all over the nation. So be thinking
about stuff you'd like to share. If you have something now, go ahead and
send it to me. I'm already amassing a collection. Those whose
contributions are used will be entitled to a huge discount or a free copy
of the book, depending on the type of contribution. Email me for
details.
To continue with the Spring Fever theme, I'm
sending a copy of the Guide to Ride Managers of the following rides, to be
given as the award of their choosing:
Central - Jo Tate Memorial - Flat Springs Park,
MO
Mountain - Red Hills - Otto, WY
Midwest - DRAW I - Kettle Moraine Forest,
WI
Northeast - Scioto Run - Chillicothe,
OH
Northwest - Owyhee 100 - Oreana, ID
Pacific South - Californios - Lake Hughes,
CA
Southeast - LBL Express - Golden Pond,
KY
Southwest - Caja del Rio - Santa Fe,
NM
West - American River Classic - Auburn,
CA
If you are a Ride Manager and are interested in
receiving a free copy of the Guide to use as an award, please contact me for
details at info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx .
I've had some inquiries into when the heck Angie's
book will be ready. Angie and I will continue working on her book as soon
as school is out. She's been pre-occupied being a teacher. Imagine that! We'll
keep you posted on when it will be for sale.
I'm thinking about doing the American River Ride,
which isn't in the book because the previous ride manager asked me not to put it
in, thinking no one would take it over. A big thanks to Paul and Erin Klentos
for picking up the baton. The American River Ride is the oldest sanctioned
50-mile ride in the nation. It deserves to keep on going! Hopefully, the weather
will cooperate. I know they've had to re-route the trail some because of all the
rain we've had.
Looking forward to a great season of beautiful
trails ... and hopefully, riding Tank on some of them some day
soon,
