April 2007

> I'm glad it was such nice weather during the day.

Me too. We all diligently carried our rain coats, because we knew if we took them off the saddles, we'd need them.

I wore a sun shirt, a zipper sweat shirt and a fleece vest. Thought about taking them off at the first hold, but the weather never quite convinced me. I was never hot, but never cold either - rode almost all day with everything un-zipped (showing a lot of cleavage as I discovered later in my ride photo ;-) )

> That sucks about the hard roads, that was what probably
> disturbed your knee?

No, I think it was 25 miles of semi-continuous trotting. It's one of my major weaknesses, since I'm not *that* fond of trotting anyway (too much like work) and don't have many places to train where we can trot continuously... and since I train on my own a lot, I don't have the discipline to make myself do it on my own.

There were two things I wanted to work on - long-trotting and long-gradual climbs and we got both. Except I was chicken on the long-gradual-climbs and worried about him doing them. I don't like him to get anerobic (in my mind's eye, I can see his tendons unravelling from fatigue).

> Way to be prepared and bring the pharmeceuticals :)

We rode a short while with Cyndee Pryor. Cyndee broke her leg at DVE one year and was telling her riding partner how she had to ride 20 miles to get back to camp - she didn't have drugs with her. After that, I realised keeping the "good drugs" in the trailer wasn't a lot of use, since I'd probably be out on the trail when I hurt myself. So now I carry a bottle which has tylenol, allegra (in case I get attacked by bees - it could happen), and a few (very old) vicodans (I figure old vicodan is better than no vicodan). The trick is to make sure I don't take the wrong pill :)

I took my two tylenol within a mile of my knee starting to hurt and I think that really helped. If you can stop the pain before it gets bad, it's much easier to control, I've heard.

After that, I posted more off my thighs and was less "controlling" about how I did it. I think I try to ride "too nicely" at the beginning - controlling my movements too precisely and I think it comes back to bite me. I'm going to see if I can take a lesson or so with Erin Klentos to see if she can see what I'm doing wrong.

> Roo had energy to spare it sounds like!

Yes <grrr> I couldn't believe it when he put that buck in at 35 miles.

An hour or so after the ride was finished and I was checking him over, I noticed he had two puffy areas either side of his girth. I'd tightened it one hole just before going out on the last loop, so maybe that was overkill. Or the velcro strap I used to keep the HRM electrode in place was in a bad spot and bulging? I'd like to try him in a mohair girth, but the one I have looks like a 26" which I think will be too long... perhaps I need to punch yet more holes in the billets?

Here something I was curious about. Roo got "Bs" on muscle tone on Saturday and when I got to thinking about it, I realised I don't actually *know* what it is they're looking for in muscle tone. I asked the vet and he said it was to do with how loose the muscles felt (and that I shouldn't worry about it).

I'm not sure which muscles they are testing this on, but I'm thinking it's hamstrings/butt. And the thing is, Roo is really tight and hard in that area - he always is, even when standing around doing nothing. When he was giving him his WNV shot at the beginning of March, Larry Goss conversationally asked me "is he fit?" and I said we'd been working on hills - and as he gave the shot, he commented "I can feel his muscle tone".

I'd like to know if that's what they were feeling and if I need to really concentrate on giving him rubs and massages to loosen it up, or if he's just "like that"? Hopefully I'll get a chance at Washoe - or maybe at the weekend during a lull I can ask the vet at Cool during American River.

(btw, I practiced pulse taking last night and all the horses are dead. Chili has a pulse, and pft does, but not the horses. Hmm. My stethoscope is also so tight it perforates your eardrums. Occasionally you'll have a clear moment and hear stuff - I could hear Roo's pulse, but it seemed very fast (considering he wasn't doing anything), so afterwards I wondered if what I was feeling was my own pulse in my ears, protesting their smooshedness).

After sleeping for two hours when we got home early from work yesterday evening, I'm finally starting to feel a bit human again, nearly. Today I had a training class for "In Design" (page layout software) which was fun, and best of all, we got out early so were able to drop by Echo Valley Feed Store on the way home.

We are now four chooks richer - I picked up three frizzles (one of which is probably a silkie, but never mind) and a "giant blue cochin", which is a standard size chook (who's half as big again as the other three). Hurray! It's nice to have lil' chooks again.

Echo Valley also had Ice Tight poultice (OK, so I didn't want to go that route, but I know it works), Endura-Max electrolytes, and pretty blue splint boots without the stupid loops to fiddle with.

It was *still* light when we got home, so after installing the new chooks in their cardboard palace, Jack and I did a short training session (worked on leading, manners, trotting out and not ripping the lead rope out of Lucy's hand or rearing and plunging past her). I retrieved some horse cookies that I got at the ride at the weekend and once he realised what was involved, we also worked on "being polite to get the treat" - which he picked up *very* quickly.

To finish up, I practiced with my stethoscope again this time all horses had heart beats.

So Ann got roped into being head volunteer for the vet check at Cool at 44 miles for the AR ride. We got there really early Saturday morning and set up with plenty of space for PnRing and a chute to bring the riders from the in-timer gate to the sloshing/eating/sponging/PnRing area.

After setting up, we went for breakfast, but the restaurant in Cool has only just opened and things were a bit chaotic there, so we ended up grabbing our food "to go" - worried that we'd miss the first riders in. As it turned out, because of the heat, the first riders didn't turn up until around 12:30, so we were fine.

PnRing was really fun and I was sad I missed the glut of riders because I had to drive the rig down to hw-49 bridge, park facing the wrong way on the road-side, hike in to No-Hands and then over the top back to hw-49 - looking for a lady reputed to be down there with heat-stroke. No lady was found (it turns out she returned to Auburn), but then I had to do an interesting three point turn just after hw-49 bridge to get turned around (all during busy Sat. afternoon traffic - they were thrilled with me).

Katie:
> You know, I was really scared of P/R until I went out and just DID it last
> year at East Bay (with a few tips from people). It was nice to find that
> the horses who are rushed in to the vet checks usually have very
> detectable pulses.

Except for a mule, I purposely avoided the front runners (although like you say, now I'm more confident and know what I'm doing - have memorised the math - 15 = 60, 16 = 64, 17 = 68, 18 = 72, 19 = 76, 20 = 80..., I'd be OK doing it.)

Ann's steth made *all* the difference. I washed my other one out, but it was still full of water when I tried it Sunday night, so I don't know if it cleared. Ann's one made it so you could hear *everything* rather that try to imagine you could hear things.

There were *a lot* of hot puffy horses in Cool, esp. towards the end, where I'm guessing they were getting the training hill + the worst of the heat on the Cool loop. One horse was puffing so badly I thought I was listening to its pulse - going along at 80 ppm (puffs per minute). Finally found a faint pulse behind the puffing by going down practically underneath it. And the pulse was as high as the puffing, so I sent them off into the shade and told them to untack and splosh water on the horse.

Later on, I transported a pulled-n-sick horse, as well as two O/T horses back to Auburn, and then a fourth horse over to Pilot Hill after the ride.

Sitting watching the proceedings, Jess asked me "So, does it make you wish you were riding?"

"Hell no... I did my nice cool 60 degree ride last weekend. I don't want to be out in high 80s looking like these guys and worrying about if the horse is going to drop dead from heat".

(besides, AR is too hard to do. I still have to do it on Roo and maybe Zini if she comes sound, but it won't be for a while).

I got a pair of 1s Epics from Steve Elliott - they have been used a tad and one is missing a heel strap, but I just need them for Provo, so we can ride him.

Today is actually Wednesday and my quads are quite sore. I was thinking it was from riding last night - did lots of downhill trotting - but in retrospect, I'm guessing it was from running the 2.7 miles from the hw-49 turnout down to No-Hands Bridge.