Tucker had a good week off after our 25/25 and then a week of walkies during which he's felt good: loose and energetic. I showed up at the barn yesterday intending to put him back into full work...
...and guess who had managed to bend the outside branch -- outside branch! who does that? -- of his left hind shoe?
Guess some pony wasn't quite ready to be done with vacation yet.
Meanwhile, have been doing some thinking about drinking on trail. I'm very pleased with Tuck's progression in drinking at the twenty-mile mark, and I guess I'm wondering whether it's realistic to want him drinking earlier or whether this is just him?
All three ride days, he's started out well-hydrated with a lot of hay/grass/beet pulp in his gut, and all three ride days he's aced all hydration parameters at the hold, and then finally shown interest in drinking at roughly twenty miles. Honestly, he spent his entire eventing career making me crazy by how long he waited to drink and never had a problem as a result.
We do ride in a relatively humid area -- he is a relatively heavy sweater, but the air in New England is not going to pull water out of him the way the air in, say, the desert would do. Everything I've read says that you want them drinking early and often and certainly my own strong preference based on my own athletic experiences is to be proactive and aggressive with hydration and electrolytes -- but is it possible that he's just not a horse who needs to drink in the first twenty?
I guess it doesn't make much practical difference either way. He'll drink or he won't, and I'll watch him and manage him as best I can, and we'll see how it goes. All holds for the October 50 are apparently at GMHA, so he'll be back at his house and should drink well, and if/when/if we try rides at other venues, we'll just take it as it comes -- and hopefully his mileage from this year will make him (and me?) smarter for next!
Fetti pretty much never drank on our early, shorter trail rides. She knew where home was and she was convinced we'd be there soon enough that it didn't justify drinking any sooner. Eventually she would drink if we were out long and hard enough, so I quit worrying.
ReplyDeleteNow? She's figured out that sometimes, we're gone a while, and she has to work hard. She doesn't always drink, but she's well-aware of where her usual choices are. At Fireworks, maybe two miles from the end, I was ready to keep trotting by a water trough she generally ignores.. and she made it very clear that she'd like to stop here, please. We stopped, she drank, we carried on.
Point is: he may improve with time and start drinking earlier, maybe? So I'd not stress too much if he's doing well.
Ohhh, the outside branch of the shoe! I feel your pain. My horse did that twice recently and I am flabbergasted and, frankly, somewhat impressed ;-)
ReplyDeleteKeep us posted on the drinking games ;-)
Ugh how do they do that. I don't know how to make them drink, I always could just push Carlos' head in a water bucket and he'd start drinking right away.
ReplyDeleteDrinking that late really isn't uncommon. If he's drinking good once he finally starts, try not to worry about it.
ReplyDeleteDixie never used to drink before 15-18 miles. I spent a nerve-wracking year trying to get her to drink earlier, but there's a reason it's a saying: you just can't make them drink. Now she drinks a bit earlier, usually at 10-12 miles but sometimes she'll go as long as 18 miles. As long as she starts drinking by 20 miles and she keeps drinking, I pay her no mind.
Thanks for the thoughts and encouragement, folks! Carlos was a gem in many ways. :)
ReplyDelete