Old Glory I - ride story - long

["Randall Aldridge" <limberlost@worldnet.att.net>]

Now that my husband has put my computer back together I can play catch up &
relate my ride story at Old Glory.
First let me start by saying that Linda & Bo Parrish put on a great ride as
usual w/3 days of different trails each day. However this was not to be my
best personal ride experience.  Not horrible but not great either.

Anyway, my friend Carolyn & I had planned on going & riding 2 days &
working 1.  A few days before leaving her horse colicked & she decided to
go up early Sat. to work. I decided to leave on Thurs. as planned & ride
Friday, work Sat., ride Sun.  This was my maiden voyage w/my new-to-me
little 2 horse trailer (not much but it's mine).  Got the truck loaded,
trailer hooked up, just need to load horse.  Horse doesn't want to load. 
She's been spoiled w/Carolyn's 2 horse slant gooseneck & has decided she
doesn't like stepping down to the low rent accomodations.  In retrospect
she probably knew something I didn't know.  Recruit help, get horse in
trailer. And we're off!!
Uneventful trip to camp.  Pull in & some friends show me a place to park
under the trees w/lots of shade.  Did I mention it was hot! hot! hot!? 
Thought, this will be great, nice trees, shade, maybe slightly cooler.  

At ride meeting Thurs night find out start time for 25s is 8 a.m.  Man it's
going to be hot!  Vet check's out of camp.  Get everything together & put
into the truck that's going to the check, feed horse, get settled for the
night.  Did I say it was hot!?  Slept outside on my cot which was actually
not bad, looked at the stars.  I never realized how noisy bugs are though. 
It was hard to sleep w/all the noise.

Woke up next morning after hearing the wake up call.  Decided to stay in
bed til 6am since start time was 8.  Got up, fed horse.  I am getting
dressed about 6:30 & I think I hear 25 miles role call!  Finish dressing,
look out & see riders & horses milling around.  Ask one of my neighbors if
that is 25's & she said didn't think so, they start @ 8.  Well sure enough
it IS 25s (sorry Linda, never heard the change of times).  Can we say
panic!  Grab horse, saddle horse, pray I haven't forgotten anything.  Go
down to start area & get on horse; I'm the last person to leave camp.  Take
off like bat out of you-know-where across camp till we get to gap in fence
to get on trail & slam on brakes.  After a small discussion we go thru the
gap & go down trail.  

Trail was great w/the exception of not a lot of water on trail.  Is was so
hot a lot of the usual water places were dry.  Khali did great going by
herself (she's becoming a real endurance horse).  We played leap frog on
the last half of the first loop w/Leslie & her gelding.  I had been
planning on going slow at this ride because of the heat, so we didn't
hurry.  We stopped at a pond & Khali took a few sips & I electrolyted her
(we had been electrolyting since Wed p.m.).  Got into the vet check & she
was a little tight in her right rear so I massaged her butt while she ate a
little.  She drank a little but not as much as she usually does at this
point & she wasn't eating her usual amount either.  I electrolyted her
again w/some added calcium half way thru the hold so it would kick in
before w/went back on trail.  Had the vet check her rear before we went out
& he said it was better.

Heading back out on trail we rode w/Leslie whom I met in Bandera a few
years ago. Really enjoyed riding w/her & her horse.  A few miles after the
check I noticed that Khali didn't seem to be sweating as much as I thought
she should.  Today was slightly less humid than it had been but she usually
sweats like a pig.  Everything else was fine, didn't seem tired, no other
problems I could tell.  We were going pretty slow so I kept a close eye on
her.  We stopped at every available water & sponged.  She drank pretty good
at one puddle but she wouldn't drink at a pond we stopped at. I decided to
get her another dose of electrolytes since we were about 3 miles from the
finish at this point w/the thought that it would kick in & she would drink
at the check.

Came into the finish & on the trot out she was a little tight in her left
rear this time.  Took her to the trough & she drank a little but still not
as much as she should. A little massage on her rear & we head to the
trailer.  I offered Khali a variety of stuff to eat, some mash, some wet
alfalfa, some hay.  No luck, she didn't want to eat.  Decided to keep a
close eye on her.  Not too concerned yet, she usually likes to rest first
if she's tired & then eat. About an hour later she still hasn't eaten or
drank & she's tried laying down a couple of times.  I decide to walk her
around & see if she'll eat some grass.  Just a few bites, then no thank
you.  Well enough of this, time to go to the vets & get checked over.  On
the way over she lays down & now alarms bells are ringing really loud.  I
had been having little bells ringing but I didn't want to believe them. 
This is the first time Khali's ever had any problems at a ride in her 2
years of riding.  Sure enough Val Jaffe confirmed her gut sounds were
suppressed & she was on the edge of colic.  Went over to her trailer to get
some Banamine (the wonder drug) which Khali did not appreciate one bit.  We
talked for a minute & I walked Khali back over to the vet area to see if
she would drink.  She started drinking like she was going to empty the
trough!  Then she went to the other trough & tried to drain it too.  Walked
around, ate grass like she had never had any in her life.  Went back to the
trailer & she started eating like there was no tomorrow.  What a relief! 
She never had problem one after that, at least w/eating & drinking &
recovering that is.

Well, mom feels better, horse feels better.  Time to relax a little.  There
was a equine massage therapist at the ride & I thought Khali could use a
nice massage, especially since she had had some tightness in her rear end. 
Ask massage lady to work on Khali & we just get started when we notice dark
clouds & lightning working it way towards camp.  Decide to wait on massage
& go batten down the hatches before it starts raining.  Good thing we did. 
Man did it rain!  Lightning, thunder, high winds, hard rain, even some
hail.  Tarp blew down, got out of the truck to fix that.  Get soaked.  Back
in truck.  Just finished eating my sandwich when I see this gray horse go
flying by the truck.  Holy cow, that's my horse!  Get out, grab halter,
look behind truck & see that I no longer have a panel pen.  A tree fell on
it & destroyed it.  Go running after horse & find her just a few campsites
away.  Keep in mind it is lightning & thundering loudly & I have to catch a
terrified horse.  Fortunately some friends came to help.  Now we caught the
horse but meanwhile I have no where to put her.
If I tie her to the trailer she'll probably kill herself & the trailer
(like I said it's not much but it's mine).  We are both soaked to the skin
(I had wanted a shower but this was not what I had in mind) huddling behind
someone's trailer, Khali's jumping everytime it thunders which is about
every 20 seconds, & I keep thinking we are going to get struck by lightning
any second now.  With no place else to go, we go running across the open
pasture to the vet area where there is a little covered pavilion & a tarp. 
There we stayed w/2 other horses & riders & several people to wait out the
storm.

After a while it finally slacked up enough to go back to the trailer. 
Check out the damage.  My pen was just about a total loss.  The tree barely
missed the trailer & most importantly missed the horse!  Don't ask me how
it missed her cause there sure wasn't much left of the pen.  My wonderful
neighbors, Billy & Melinda Ellis loaned me a picket line & put it up so I
could get Khali situated.  She was still a little goosy but settled down to
eat some hay.  A little later Bo Parrish & Billy took my pen apart (thanks
guys I could have never done it!).  After the awards & ride meeting for the
next day, I found the massage lady (Rita Rutledge) & we tried again.  This
time things went well & Khali got her massage.  Mom could have used one too
at this point!  

Things were finally settled down & it was actually quite pleasant
temperature wise now that the rain had gone through.  Slept like a rock. 
Got up & worked Sat.  Thank God that was uneventful.  Decided to go home
Sun morning, we had pushed our luck enough for one ride.  All in all had a
great time socializing & visiting w/friends & working Sat.  

Thanks again Linda & Bo (who said he wouldn't charge extra for the tree!).

BTW Khali is going great. Rode yesterday & she ate, drank, & sweated like a
pig.  I think several little things snowball on her but I suspect our
biggest problem was the particular electrolytes I used (Enduralytes).  I
have used this in the past but I have mostly used Lytenow w/a home mix. 
This was her first reallllly hot ride.  We've skipped Old Glory the past 2
years for various reasons.  We had been consistently training in the heat &
humidity but I have been using a home mix which has always seemed to do
well w/a good drink response.  That's what I used yesterday & it worked
fine.

Sorry this is so long, I was afraid it would be once I started typing.

Christina & Khali (did you see the size of that tree! & the lightning &
thunder - scary; when can we do this again!)
Houston