Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

>   Now, how about some help for me and Rose.  Here's the deal.   I 
> have a girthy issue on 100's. 
I got to BSF around 2 PM Sat. so was only around for about the 2nd half
of the 100. I did P&R's and was very aware of how girthy pretty much
*all* of the horses were. Many had rubs but they were not behind the
elbow in the girth area, they were more under the rider's leg maybe? 
Where the barrel sticks out the farthest before curving in. I asked one
rider if she had a western type saddle because I was curious as to
whether her fender was swinging back and forth making the rub and she
said no, English. It *could* be under the buckles but it was not behind
the elbow where I saw rubs at this ride. 

Several of the other pulse takers were using the hand  held monitors but
I couldn't stand to see them press them hard against the horse's side to
get a connection. I used a stethoscope and tried to avoid ouchy places.
Note...it was an embarassing thing when I first started doing pulses. I
hadn't been a pulse taker in so long I did everything to do with
recording the numbers wrong...like I'd never been to a ride. Not used to
the new style card, eyes failing...kinda humiliating. :-P

On the rub thing again...one of my theories on this ride, since I have
noticed lots of riders dealing with rubs there, is that it comes right as
the horses are getting ready to go from summer to winter coat. It seems
they go through a vulnerable time in  spring and early fall just as
they're going from winter to summer coats when they are more tender and
vulnerable. We use the same girths on our horses all year, but will
suddenly get a rub around these times if we aren't super careful. I know
Jody clipped Rose again for this ride too. If I were you Jody I'd skip
those areas next time.  So many horses have problems getting scratches
there I'd be curious about the PH of the soil. Doesn't that contribute to
those problems out west? It would be interesting to see if there's
something there and maybe you could bath those areas with something that
would neutralize it???? (grasping at straws, wild guessing, probably in
left field)

You mentioned Rose didn't get a rub with Josie. Josie's legs are about a
foot shorter than yours and her stirrups may not even clear the area that
got rubbed.  I can think of 3 riders right now whose horses did have rubs
and they were all at least 5'7 or so with long legs. I wish now that I'd
noticed if more taller riders had horses with rubs on their barrels. I
haven't had a problem there, but I've never done more than one day of 50
miles there so not much proof I'd have any better luck than anyone else
had I done what they were doing.

Angie

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