The day was warm, breezy. 47 horses started the 30 mile ride. It is a
deceptive ride with constant up-and-down on quite good footing that lures
the rider into starting out too fast. At the mid-point we had 13 horses
pulled--mainly for high pulse and stiff hind ends. I did P&R on 4 horses
who were in the 80's after 10 minutes. There were quite a few novice
riders who hadn't done their homework. Too many horses were not clipped
sufficiently and quite a few riders weren't putting much water on their
hairy friends!
One accident--and another testament to Troxel helmuts. There's a really
slick blacktop driveway off a down-slope that is ribboned-off and ground
crew there to alert riders to the danger. One gentleman ignored all that
and hit the driveway at speed. His horse toppled over on top of him and
both slid down the driveway, he with the horse still on him!
Fortunately, he was wearing full chaps & jeans, plus the helmut. He made
it back to mid-point. But he couldn't stand up without becoming dizzy.
An ambulance took him to the hospital--he's OK, moderate concussion and
pretty substantial soft tissue damage to the leg. Without the
helmut?...well, it would be far worse. Horse is OK also--just stiff behind.
After the heat at the OD No Frills, and now the Cheshire, I'm going to be
ultra-conservative this coming weekend at a 25 mile CTR in the mountains of
central PA. And I'm going to clip (if the weather report is OK).
I don't remember seeing so many heat-related problems so early in the
season--even after the "winter-from-hell" of 2 years ago here in the NE.
Diane @ Safe Haven
Allentown, PA