We loaded up on Friday morning in Pullman and Jasper was absolutely vibrating. I could almost hear him humming from down the barn aisle. He had the whole week off, but I had heard this is what you were supposed to do before a ride, and it [sorta] worked for us last time. When we arrived in Boise, I unloaded him for a couple hours at our place and went about throwing things together for the ride. I was hoping he'd work off his excess energy out in the pasture, but I suspect all he did was gorge himself on the beautiful grass and stand around. Phooey.
When we arrived at ridecamp, all seemed well. We went over to vet him in and he could not stand still. He even cocked a hind leg at Dr. Washington, which is very unusual behavior for him. I should have been warned at this point, but I proceeded unawares. Wayne and I made our way around camp that evening chatting with various members of our local club. I found a group of people to ride with that were planning to go slow, and made arrangements to ride with them the next morning.
The chilly morning came too soon, and we tacked and mounted without incident. Jasper seemed calm and cool, much more so than the last ride. That lasted until we got out onto the trail. He started jigging and prancing and acting like a nut, and kept it up for the first couple miles. I got off a few times until he calmed down, and then remounted only to have him ramp right up again. It was totally exhausting. We got our pictures taken (thankfully) early, and disaster struck soon after that. Some riders passed us and Jasper decided he'd rather go with them. He started in with the whole sideways-evading baloney and somewhere in there I attempted to circle him although we were going quickly down the hill. I tried to jump off and ended up tumbling, he got loose and took off. Thankfully he came almost right back to our group, but by this time he had gotten the other horses so worked up I felt awful. I tried to tell them he really wasn't normally like this, but I'm sure everyone says that on ride day. They asked if I was okay, which was about when I lost it. I felt so silly--not for falling off, but for getting so emotional about my whole situation. The stress of last week and lack of sleep was obviously getting to me, and I felt guilty for being a burden to such a nice group of riders.
They rode ahead while I struggled to keep myself together, walking my horse on yet another ride. Every time someone passed I got emotional again--so much for our endurance career (I was feeling pretty hopeless). I quickly ran out of steam and decided the whole ordeal wasn't worth it. We cut back to camp after the first water troughs. Luckily, Jasper either sensed my frustration/giving up/weakness and decided to shape up, which was a good thing because I was getting blisters on my feet from walking. My legs were wobbly from emotion and weakness, and I stumbled into camp, handed in my vet card, and told them I just didn't have the energy to be dealing with all this. Wayne ran over and said he'd heard I'd come off and I almost crumpled into him. He took Jasper and told me to sit down at the trailer and took care of untacking and feeding Jasper while I weakly sat in our camping chair feeling worthless.
Blugh.
Once I regained some semblance of stability and stopped feeling like I was going to pass out, I headed over to the vet check area with a beer and a huge bottle of gatorade to socialize. I ended up getting lots of really great advice, and think I may have found our problem.
1. I found out a lot of people don't really give their horses an entire week off before the ride. Many people I talked to said they do a "blow-out" (3-5 quick miles) the Wednesday before to work off excess energy without tiring their horses.
2. Jasper started getting goofy soon after we started the Platinum. I started it the Wednesday before our first ride, which may have contributed to our early problems that day (not the lameness--the excitement). I found out that even though the label says to feed 2-4 scoops for endurance horses, they really should not ever get over 2 scoops or it makes them crazy. And even then, the woman I spoke with weans her horses off it the week before a ride, and they don't get any on days they don't get worked. I'm putting Jasper in "De-tox" this week and will re-start the Platium after our ride on Memorial Day Weekend, but will only be giving him 1-2 scoops on work days.
3. The vet (and his wife) said they have had two horses go ballistic on Ultium. We've now switched to Safe Choice, which can be fed in higher volumes, too. (When we vetted in, the vet noticed he was a tad thinner than last time, hence the conversation about feed).
4. We're going to start using Focus Equine (www.performanceequineusa.com), as it's come highly recommended from multiple people. I've heard great things, so what the heck? I'll keep you posted on the results, but I've been advised to start it 5 days before the ride. I ordered the "trial size" to give it a whirl.
5. No lameness or boot issues! Thank Goodness that's been resolved...
The whole ordeal was very frustrating, although I was "forced" to go riding with Skyla and Pam on Sunday. Skyla said I wasn't going to get out of going, even if she had to come pick me up! It ended up being a really good thing. Even though Jasper was much higher than usual, we had a strange incident while coming down a hill when I suddenly sensed he'd come "back." It was the strangest thing--it was like he sighed and relaxed and I had my normal Jasper back. When we got to the bottom of the hill, Skyla even said something about how he looked more normal. Very odd. And then he was fine for the rest of our ride.
I've been told by a few people, "The third time's the charm!"
3 comments:
I've been there and it's hard - but keep trying. I didn't finish ANY rides my first season. Literally one diaster after another.
You WILL get to the point where you are succesfully completeing rides!!!! I was told that the first 250 mileage patch is the hardest one and I believe it! (although I haven't gotten my 500 patch yet...)
Some of my thoughts when I was reading your blog:
I stopped feeding Platinum because when I was honest with my self, I couldn't see any difference before and after when I fed it for 8 months. I didn't notice that it made either of them "high", but I'm finding that each horse responds differently to stuff. Strategy made my standardbred so high that she fell on my one spring. I was discouraged, I stopped going out to the stable for 2 weeks (so she didn't get any strategy...) and lo and behold I had my horse back. Every horse responds to food differently so just see what works for you! Beet and pulp and oil work well for me on non-work days, and I add a couple of pounds of LMF gold on working days. I like the idea of oil adding most of the calories.
I give my horses a "light" week before a ride, but don't usually give them the entire week off. They get hand walked, hand jogged, lunged etc. I usually don't ride them. For my next ride I'm showing up a couple of days early and I plan on riding the day before on a light trail ride for ~1-1 1/2 hours. I have never ridden the week beofre the ride OR at the ride site before the ride, so I'll see if it makes that much of a difference.
Good luck!
I fed Ultium last year and Boomer was crazy. I had to work him twice a day to be able to handle him on the ground or under saddle. He just had boundless energy and couldn't focus. I started mixing the Ultium 50/50 with Horseman's edge 12% pellet. That has worked like a charm. He still has plenty of energy for long rides, but is not crazy anymore! Purina just came out with Omolene 500 which is pretty close to the same thing as mixing the Horseman's Edge and Ultium. We are trying that now and I am curious to see how he will do on it since it is a sweet feed, though the sweet comes from a soy/molasses blend instead of straight molasses.
Anyhow, I hope you find something that works for you!
The NSC on SafeChoice is still pretty high at 22 NSC. Phebes couldn't handle it, and I had to go even lower.
Doing the week off prior is probably what caused Phebe's to tye up on her first ride. So I won't be doing that again EVER.
I'd recommend some group rides with agreeable people that will "help" with the problem. Meaning give you opportunity to correct the issue rather than just riding on while you fight it out with Jasper. We have very similar horses (I'm sorry)*LOL*
~E.G. (who has a laid up post tye-up horse and is twiddling her thumbs....)
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