What Doug learned
Ride
was 25 miles.
got up
to Descanso about 12:30 on Friday afternoon
Cynthia
saved me a place next to where she parked.
I
brought just about everything that I could think of.
DVD's
and DVD player.
Water
for Bow ( from the ranch) 80 gallons pump to pump water and wash bow.
A bale
of hay.
2
propane heaters
1
mosquito replant (for Bow at night)
Food
and snacks and sunflower seeds
4
gallons for drinking water.
Pillow
and blanket.
GPS
25 lbs
of carrots
lots of
sunflower seeds for me and Bow.
We
checked in with the vet and got A's on everything except his gut ( got a B
on that ) will do research on why later.
after
the vet check went back to the trailer bow did not want to eat hay and the
big thing he did not want to drink any water.
I went
on a short ride for about 1 hour and he still really did not want to drink.
so I talked the the vet and he said that if he still did not drink or eat by
the am that I should not ride.
talked
to Cynthia for about 30 min and she noticed that bow 3 was drinking water.
so I decided to stay the night. Popped in The last of the dogman" DVD and
bow started to talk to the other horses ( or so I thought) he was talking to
me saying that he wanted more hay so I gave him one more flake and he was
happy. went back to the truck fired up the heaters and fell asleep and woke
up as the movie was over. took a look at bow ( about 11:30p) and he was
lifting his leg (begging) like he does when he wants more food. So I gave
him more food and it looks like he drank some more water. I was glad that he
did that did not want to stay go home. fed him about 2 more times at night.
woke up about 4:30 and just kept my eye on him his coat was not cold so I
knew that he was not to cold in the night.
Got
saddled up about 6:00 as the ride is a shotgun start ( everyone starts at
one time)
walked
over with Cynthia and they stared the race ( no shotgun). I stayed with
Cynthia for about 5 min or so as that is about all I could ( or bow could
handle) so I let bow open up as he is THE GO HORSE. we caught up to the top
5 bunch in about 20 min. and stay with them for the rest of the ride until
the first vet check. on the way bows heart rate got up to about 215 (
should be down around 150-160)I thought that the heart rate monitor was
reading wrong like I have seen with a bad sensor. but it looks like it was
reading right ( 1st lesson learned). at the vet check bows heart rate did
not come down as fast as we had practiced So I had 30 in to bring it down to
56 heart rate when we went to the vet at 29 min his heart rate was not down
far enough ( by about 4 heart beats). so I was pulled out of the race ( the
race tends to be more about the health of the horse.) we stayed until
Cynthia pulled in and waited to ride back with her.
What I
learned was
1.
Learn how to fully control horse ( bow tends to get away from me)
2.
Probably should trailer out for some more 1 night overnights so the both of
us can get used to it. I think that he was nervous about not being home.
3. Bow
does not needs his own water but will still take 30 gallons or so so I do
not have to carry it from the water area.
4. Only
bring about 1/2 as much hay.
5.
Carry less thing on the ride. I brought way to much weight. just need a
sponge to cool him down.
6. At
the vet stop make sure and loosen cinch and start top water him down right
away ( I didn't start as I thought that his heart rate would come down like
he normally does. Bow gave his heart out. I just should have walked him in
as I was way ahead of the pack, ( lesson 2 learned)
7. I
need to start to custom feed him more to bulk him up as his gut got dinged
for being smaller then ?
8.
Learned that I can trust bow more going down hills a little faster then we
normally do. that seems to be a key to speed and time.
9. To
bring less junk. 2 water bottles ( need to find the bigger water bottle
holders).
10.
Find a better saddle pad.
11.
Wear knee pad
12.
Stay for the dinner. I did not for 2 reason bow still had not drank allot of
water. and I did not sleep well.
13.
Would like to have a trailer with a bigger room then a tack room so I can
sleep in ( just a bed)
14. The
major thing is to work on more hills with bow and use the heart rate monitor
to real monitor him and work on getting his heart rate down.