Re: Hot weather syndrome

["Michelle Rowe" <michrowe@frontier.net>]

thanks for details.  seems like it's going to be hard to diagnose exactly
what the problem is without having more data on pulls and circumstances
around them.

for ctr, natrac could put together a checklist of data they collect for each
pulled horse.  imo, that would be very interesting and useful data.  it
would be interesting to do trend analysis on and help us riders to predict
problem situations we may unwittingly be getting into.  it would give us a
less subjective way to look deeper into the problems.

m
----- Original Message -----
From: John & Sue Greenall <greenall@vermontel.net>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 1999 3:27 PM
Subject: RC: Hot weather syndrome


> To answer Michelles questions.  This was a 100 mile CTR, no one
> was on their first ride.  Most of the horses had been competing all
> season, no one pulled one out of a pasture.  Most of the riders had
> thousands of miles of experience.  Everyone took advantage of
> sponging and despite the hot dry conditions, we had tons of water
> out there.  In 40 miles we had 10 tanks on trail, not including the
> hold which had two three hundred gallon tanks that the riders used.
> Interestingly, at the hold, 17 miles out, no one had a high pulse,
> most were 48 or lower in 10 minutes.  The second half was 20
> miles (we lie a little about it being a 40 mile day ;-} ) and we had
> pulses in the 60's, one in the 80's, and thumps after 20 minutes.
> The horses were all in the shade (they had stalls with overhangs)
> and plenty of water applied.  Our scoring system requires the horse
> to reach a 44 pulse in 20 minutes and we USUALLY have no
> problem seeing this.  And there were quite a few horses that did
> just that.
>
> The time was 6:40 to 7:10 which included a 20 minute hold which
> comes to 5.8 to 6.3 mph.  Compared to a 50 mile endurance at the
> same speed, it would take 7:20 of ride time.  The difference is that
> in that 50 miles, the horse would have had 2-3 holds.
>
> Several of you have responded to this issue privately to me and had
> made some very good points.  Please post to the list so that
> others can comment.  One rider at a 30 mile CTR had a similar
> experience and attributed it to the brand of electrolytes used.  No
> doubt there is a great deal of difference between brands and
> consumer knowledge is very important.  But some of the brands I
> am hearing to blame are "endurance rated" and highly used by us.
>
> To address another comment about this sport being a risk.  Yes, of
> course it is, but reducing the risk is our responsibility to our
> horses.  I cannot accept what I have seen this summer as being
> "part of the sport" because I think we can learn and manage better.
>
> The point I wish to point out again is that this "syndrome" is
> occuring at CTR as well as top level endurance rides.  We cannot
> blame it on rider ignorance, riding too fast or poor ride management
> like we have in the past.  There is more there to look at and we
> should do just that.
> John and Sue Greenall
> mailto:greenall@vermontel.net
> http://www.vermontel.com/~greenall
>
>
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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
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