Stocking Up Questions

["Kirsten Price" <splash@dakotacom.net>]

I just had my first run-in with stocking up (guess I've been lucky eh?).  I
searched the archives and got some information, but I'm wondering if anyone
has some concrete recommendations about both prevention and treatment.
Here's the situation:

My horse is a 4 year-old Morgan stallion (he just turned four in fact). In
July, I moved from Reno to Tucson and am now boarding Splash at a local
training stable.  He has a large box stall and is turned out three or four
days per week... basically whatever days I can't be there to ride him
myself. I am working on getting a paddock for him, but all the pens are full
at the moment.  So, the stall with regular turnout will have to work for
now. He has not been ridden much up until this point, but always had plenty
of room to kind of get his own exercise.  I've been riding him extensively
since late July, primarily very long trail rides mostly at the walk
(anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours), although I throw in short intervals of slow
trotting when Splash seems to feel like it. Most of the riding is in a big
sandy wash, although there are a few trails up out of the wash.  Splash is
currently barefoot, but is scheduled to get shoes on Tuesday.

The stocking up episode happened last night. We did more trotting than usual
and most of it was in the sand.  I did cool him down, but in retrospect not
as much as I should have, as I didn't take into consideration that he had
worked a bit harder than usual. This morning, Splash was stocked up
(although not bad) in both hinds, the right slightly more than the left.  I
decided to go ahead and ride, but to just walk and to confine ourselves to
the non-sandy trails as much as possible (which really limits the riding).
All the apparent swelling went away pretty quickly and he seemed to be in
absolutely no discomfort. I also spent more time hosing his legs down after
the ride, although the water isn't that cold.

So, my questions are:

Is this something that requires careful attention in young horses?  Are
there things I can do right after a ride (other than the obvious cool down)?
Would it be better to get him turnout on the days I ride as opposed to the
days I don't? Should I consider avoiding the sand altogether (that would
actually be pretty hard)? What about ice-boots, would they help? How worried
should I be?

Ok, who wants to tackle all this!

Thanks in advance,

Kirsten


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