I have been "lurking" for a couple of months and haven't felt the need to
jump in. The topics and responses are interesting and varied!
I have been waiting for some simplified comments to your experience, but
haven't seen them yet, so here goes. I tend to be a very results oriented
person. I think theory is fine, but if it doesn't work for me, I go on to
something else.
First, I am very fimiliar with the Castle Rock Ride. It is still our
favorite 50 after all these years (we first rode it in 1977). It is VERY
tough ( that's why we like it!) and can bite you it you don't plan for the
hills in the latter part of the ride.
As for your problems, I have expected someone (Mike?) to mention that it is
very common for problems to resolve themselves in the trailer ride to the
vet's. Most likely you had a colic problem that worked itself out or a muscle
cramp that relaxed (I have treated both and had both happen to our own
horses). It is often impossible to evaluate the severity of a problem
initially and the movement of the trailer ride, or just the time to the clinic
often resolves the problem.
Second, we have used and not used electrolytes through the years. I would
recommend using them if at all possible. Administered in apple sauce works
great, but can be a little messy. If your horse drinks well, one ounce
dumped directly into the horses mouth followed by drink is simple and you know
it all got there (it is amazing what you can get a horse used to!). My
personal opinion is that commercial preparations are good if you value
convenience and/or like a specific product's vehicle (syringe paste, for
example). As you have already found out, potassium (in theory) is the most
important and I would wager that if you supplimented with KCl (lite salt)
alone, you would eliminate most problems. We have used Kerry Ridgeways
formula (see "Crewing International Rides" on the Home Page) and a formula
Courtney Hart uses and both work well for us.
Lastly (and the main reason I jumped in here!), I have heard for years
(beginning in 1976 when we first came back east for the Great American Horse
Race) how bad alfalfa hay is for horses (it is hard on the kidneys, too high
in calcium, on and on). Again, from a theoretical standpoint, alfalfa is too
high in calcium and too high in protien. For years we tried to balance out
the alfalfa with oat hay (high in Phos. low in Ca) but the horses went on
strike for the alafalfa (much tastier!). When we lived in California, alfalfa
was (and still is for all I know) the primary hay used by the top competitors.
When we moved to Colorado, we found it was used much less and is hardly ever
fed to horses here in Pennsylvania. All I can say is in theory there are much
better feeds, but from a practical standpoint we have gotten good results for
20 years. I never had a problem we could attribute to alfalfa. Also, the
theoretical problems with alfalafa (Ca/Ph ratio, protein) are offset by most
grains. We continue to feed alfalfa to suppliment pasture (hallelujah, you
can pasture feed horses in Pennsylvania!).
One more pet peve: We strongly believe in starting slow and bringing on the
speed (if it is there) in the last 1/3 to 1/4 of the ride. People always use
up their horses early in the day thinking things will only get worse later (
heat, humidity, climbs etc. etc.). We have found that you never know what
you've got on any given day until late in the ride anyway. If the horse is
having a bad day and you bomb out early, you've used up your horses potential
early and may not finish the ride. We love to go "hunting in the afternoon" (
a quote from Ruthie Waltenspiel) passing all the "hot shoes" from the early
morning (that's what makes this sport so much fun!). If your horse is having
a good day, there will be plenty left in the afternoon, regardless of the
morning conditions. If there are hills late in the day, so much the better as
you can make up huge amounts of time with a relatively fresh horse.
One last comment, we believe the horse's temperament has a great bearing on
problems encountered. More high strung horses (mares especially!) seem to
have more problems with tying up in particular.
We've had some success over the years (Lori is a 2X Tevis Cup winner,
bragging over), so I hope some of these comments help. Don't let a disturbing
problem like this shake you too much, they are quite common and you have to
learn to "read" your own horse.
Soap Box Off.
Lori is at the Morgan Springs Ride in California this weekend riding one of
Courtney's horses. Say Hi if you are there (she loves to talk horses!). She
also plans to be at Tevis if all goes well.
Good luck.
Rick Stewart DVM
E-mail from: Richard K. Stewart DVM, 07-Jul-1995