That's appalling and dangerous. In the UK there is a rule which states that you
may not touch the horse during vetting (unless the vet. asks you to control
it!)- was it this kind of cheating which caused this rule to be formulated? I
HOPE it was only to prevent people using a particular touch which lowers the
heart rate. Do everything possible pre-vetting but at the vetting you must stand
back and take your chance.
On Friday I attended a veterinary talk given by an experienced Endurance vet.
which also followed the Golden Horseshoe 2-day 100m ride over Exmoor. The
weather there started with a heavy frost and temperatures suddenly and
unexpectedly rose. I was only on foot and too hot just walking with the dog. Yes
in the UK!
Obviously none of the horses were acclimatized and there were several tie-ups in
the first few miles. The successful competitors had brilliant crews and
efficient cooling was the order of the day. Our speaker (vet. to the European
Championship UK gold medal team) said get as much water on anywhere and
everywhere but then scrape it off quickly and repeat. You will find that the
cold water warms up very quickly almost as soon as you have put it on. Scrape it
off and replace with more cold water. He said iced water was not more efficient,
it just took a little longer to warm up but the quantity of cold water was the
key. I said I was always nervous of putting cold water on the back muscles - he
said if it was hot, cool it with water in the same way. It would dry off within
a couple of minutes ready to re-saddle. During riding pour water anywhere you
can reach whenever you can, it will all help.
He also said that putting wet towels over the horse did not work, all that did
was to trap the heat under the towel and increase humidity!
He also said never miss an opportunity to get the horse to drink - a horse will
start to be de-hydrated from the beginning although most will not drink for
about 20 miles. The horse will lower his nose and sniff the water, raise it and
wave it about and think before lowering it a second time and maybe drink. If
other horses move off or if you ride on before that second lowering, you have
missed an opportunity.
Horses do fine in dry heat as in the Korean Olympics but humidity is the killer
and that is why there is so much research going on at the UK's Animal Health
Trust to find out how best to manage the Olympic horses in Atlanta. The
experiences of Endurance people is being a great help.
Nita
Surrey UK