No Frills 2017

No Frills 2017

Another completion!! Stats: A solid mid-pack finish with 14th place out of 31 entries. We completed the 55 miles in 10:40:13 including two 45 minute vet check holds; Average speed 5.15 mph, average moving speed about 6 mph.  Total elevation change: 13,647' (6725 gain, 6922 loss)

Another smooth ride.. everything worked, no equipment failures and the weather cooperated beautifully with partly sunny skies and high of 82 degrees. It was a bit humid, especially in the morning which was fantastic practice for the Old Dominion in June.  Much better, in my opinion, than those that had the cooler temperature 40-50 degrees + RAIN all day on Saturday! And thank you to Diane Connolly and her team for putting on another fantastic ride!

Sunny received his first set of shoes 1 week prior to the ride on the 14th of April.  I forgot/failed to prepare him properly for this and he was poorly behaved for the farrier, dancing all around when John was trying to nail on the hind shoes. John did a fantastic job of following him all around and somehow avoided a hot-nail or a pokey nail gouging his other leg--- no thanks to Sunny, who wasn't sure about the sound or feel of the hammering! I have since already started tapping his feet and mimicing nailing/shoeing everytime I clean the hooves -- which I should have (obviously) done this BEFORE the shoeing-- my apologies John!

We tested the shoes out on Sunday (5 days pre-ride) with an easy 10 mile in 2 hrs loop at Bucktail. I normally rest him about 10 days prior to a ride, but he had several weeks of rest and I thought it was important to check everything out before ride day.  Sunny didn't move any differently, but I did find that the breastcollar was going to rub his still-healing surgery site.  So I mentally prepared for riding No Frills sans-breastcollar with lots of saddle adjustments after the climbs; not so much fun but it was either saddle adjustments or not riding.  I prepared a ride-plan, actually typing it all up which helps me figure things out and think more clearly. This also helped me know what to put in my away vet check and finish line crew bags.  I have copied and pasted the ride plan at the bottom of this blog for anyone interested.  I actually mostly followed the ride-plan too!  A few changes included giving up on any horse feed mashes as Sunny has decided water in his food is disgusting... so I just fed him his regular with 1 oz of NaCL and syringed in 3 other 1 oz NaCL + 1 oz ProCMC doses pre-ride.

Camp setup went very quickly.  I have a routine now and it just seems so much easier with every ride and/or with Sunny! I used my new Hi-Tie rope by Jonni Jewell and love it, hopefully we will never need the safety release but I feel much better having it available. I also purchased a new knife to keep on the trailer door for any emergency situation (such as cutting a rope on a tangled horse).  Sunny does great on the hi-tie and when I woke up on ride morning he was still laying down sleeping.  I really like that he is comfortable enough to lay down and sleep at ride camp and on the hi-tie. I know I will have a rested horse to start the ride.

The start was uneventful (yay!!). Sunny stayed relatively relaxed, but was certainly happy to move out with the rest of the group.  We followed our previous warm-up routine of lateral work at the walk, followed by walk-trot/gait transitions.  Sunny and I joined Roberta and Trace, Anne and Tink, Kim and Scarlett, and Jennifer and Jade for the initial few miles.  Sunny was moving out strongly, but we mostly kept the pace < 10 mph for the first hour or so, until we reached the ridgeline shortly before crossing 55 when I let him pick up rhythmic canter for a few minutes. At about 1 1/2 hours into the ride I gave Sunny his first dose of electrolytes and re-adjusted my saddle (a breast collar is really important on those climbs!).  Unfortunately the only water was within the first few miles of the start and most of the horses had no interest that early in the ride -- it was much more exciting to think about catching up with the rest of the herd!  By the time we arrived at vet check 1, after 18 miles and just under 3 hrs, Sunny and the others were pretty thirsty.  Ride managment had planned well and had a large trough right before the in-timer; all the horses guzzled water for several minutes!  However, the delay in drinking resulted in mild dehydration resulting in "B" score on skin tenting but Sunny received "A's" on everything else, and all "A's" the remainder of the ride.

Ride Start

Sunny ate and drank well at VC 1 and it was fantastic to have Graham helping us and everyone else!  I was a little worried because my stomach was gurgling and I felt a little nauseous when leaving the hold with no bathrooms or port-a-potty's for the next 25 miles! So I added the wetwipes from my crew bag to the saddle pack and hoped I wouldn't need them on trail! Sunny recieved more electrolytes and off we went!

Away Vet Check (1)

Loop 2, Tuscarora Three Ponds Trail

The next 25 miles felt like we were home!  We use that loop frequently for our training and conditioning rides and I enjoyed every minute.  The weather was beautiful, Sunny felt like a fresh horse after a pause in a creek near Half-Moon trail --I think he knew he was headed back to Bucktail and the horse trailer...he was a little wrong about the horse trailer, LOL! The Bucktail hospitality stop was wonderful, the horses enjoyed the fresh hay and grain, and the people enjoyed the cookies!  I found it amusing that the 'bathroom' was just on the other side of the volunteer's truck, they even provided toilet paper!  I think with every endurance ride a little of your personal modesty is lost forever ... it is just too time consuming to tie your horse and find a bush, much easier just to dismount and pee on the other side of the horse... (we can all just pretend the horse's legs block the view!).  Luckily my stomach settled down and I never needed the wet wipes.


The 11.5 miles out of Bucktail to Vet Check 2 were so much fun as well.  We stopped at a deeper creek crossing and let the horse's play for a few minutes and cool themselves in the moutain stream. I went on by myself while Roberta and Anne let their horses graze for a few minutes more.  Sunny remembered the forest road that we normally canter along and moved out nicely for the next 1-2 miles even though he wasn't sure about leaving his buddies.  The sun came out in full force when we reached Waites Run Road and we kept up a steady trot to the vet check.  By this time Sunny was hungry and started snagging mouthfuls of fresh grass as we moved down the trail.  I am so happy he is taking such good care of himself!

Away Vet Check (2)

It was warm and humid, reaching 82 degrees by the 2nd vet check (that is in stark contrast to the next day when it barely reached 50 degrees!).  Sunny wasn't bothered by the heat, vetted in well and was very happy to stand and eat.  After our 45 minute hold, we headed down Vance's Cove Rd for the last 9.3 miles to the finish.   Sunny was happy to maintain his rhythimic canter down the road which felt a lot nicer than trotting at this point in the ride!

In the last few miles I did notice Sunny's hips starting to track a little to the left indicating to me that he was getting tired. We added in a few more walk breaks playing with a little haunches-in and shoulder-in on the trail to keep him loose and flexible.  I am sure I was getting a little uneven at that point too, possibly causing or at least contributing to his change in posture.  We were both happy to see the finish line, he drank and ate very well and vetted in with all A's.  Sunny rocked his 2nd 50 miler and we can't wait for Old Dominion!!

Finished!

Sink post-endurance ride

2017/04/21 No Frills Plan (Ride on Friday)

Ulcergard Thursday, Friday am

Wednesday - Offer alfalfa based mashes with 2 oz NaCL/day

Thursday - Alfalfa mash with 4 oz of NaCL/day, offer normal dinner mash at ride

Friday - pre-ride AM, offer alfalfa mash, small amount of feed. Carry baggy of alfalfa cubes.

Electrolytes - 2 oz of endurmax + 2 oz ProCMC for slurry (2 dose syringe fulls)

-Administer pre-ride and about 1x/hr during ride (if unseasonably cold, administer NaCL pre-ride and for first few doses)

Dose 1 - BC, 1 oz NaCL + ProCMC

Dose 2  - Loop 1

Dose 3 - Leaving VC 1

Dose 4 - Bucktail

Dose 5 - VC 2

Dose 6 - BC @ finish

1st loop Saddlebag electrolytes- 2 syringes (1 dose)

VC 1 Electrolytes - 2 syringes + 2 refill syringes for Bucktail

VC 2 Electrolytes - 2 refills

Basecamp @ finish - 2 syringes (1 dose)

1 syringe, refill 3 saddlebag syringes (4 @ 1st VC)

VC 2 Electrolytes - 1 syringe, refill 1 saddlebag syringe = TOTAL  VC prepared electrolyte syringes = 6

Finish - 1 syringe @ crew area

Feed - alfalfa cubes in saddlebag, fresh alfalfa in crew bag, smorgasbord at finish

Saddlebag

• Spare hoofboots (front and back)
• Boost
• Bar
• Hoofpick knife
• Cell phone
• 1 water/electrolyte bottles
• 3 electrolyte syringes
• Israeli bandage

Away VC bag

• 2 pre-filled electrolyte syringes
• 2 refill doses of electrolyte mix (4 scoops enduramax + 4 oz ProCMC)
• Fresh alfalfa
• Alfalfa cube refill
• Cooler
• Hoof boots
• 2 replacement water bottles (w/ powder only)
• Boost (4)
• Pepsi
• Vaseline
• Bars (2)

Finish

• Cooler
• Feed
• Electrolyte syringe (2)
• Water buckets
• Sponging buckets
• Sweat Scraper
• Stethoscope

My food

• Thursday pm - potluck w/ cornbread and deviled eggs
• Friday am - boost, yogurt, boiled egg, fruit x 2
• Friday during ride - boosts and bars
• Friday pm - potluck??? snacks

Health update

Quick update on Sunny. After becoming stuck on the fence last Saturday he is doing well overall. He did rip open his surgery site during that episode and then the next two subsequent sets of sutures only lasted about 12 hours each... So now it is "healing by 2nd intention", or in non-vet words open and healing like any other typical horse injury.  So far it is granulating in nicely and should be healed in a week or 2.  He is confined with Rogan to the dry lot for another few days until the granulation tissue fills in just a little bit more as we don't want to risk him re-traumatizing it again!

Today Sunny had his endoscopy appointment to check for ulcers and recheck osteopathy to address in tightness from being stuck. The endoscopy showed a few yellowish plaques along the pylorus area that indicate healing ulcers as well as grade 1/4 ulcers along the margo plicatus (the border between the non-glandular top portion and glandular bottom portion of the stomach).    This border is a very common place for ulcers as it is closer to the gastric juice and more likely to get 'splashed' with gastric acid.   Thankfully the ulcers were very minor which indicates we are doing okay with the current system and few small tweaks may get us where we need to be or perhaps this might be an 'acceptable' level of ulceration considering that he is actively ridden and competed (is there an acceptable level??).  The studies show that ulcers are exceedingly common in actively used horses and even found in pasture pets... so I am going to do my best to keep him comfortable but we are still going to ride, compete, etc.  The plan is to treat him with gastrogard and tweak his management to help prevent future ulceration.  Certainly, I am going to give the him the preventative dose of Gastrogard prior to rides. I am also going to be more aggressive about either making sure he eats alfalfa, alfalfa mash, or if he refuses to eat the alfalfa I plan to administer a buffer (such as Magnalax or ProCMC) prior to and during hard conditioning rides.  I am going to feed him alfalfa twice daily in addition to the current free choice grass hay. I may try Chaffehay alfalfa and see how he likes it when I am out of tractor supply alfalfa.  I also am going to continue minimizing his concentrate, just enough to taste good with his ration balancer.  He receives California Trace ration balancer supplement to balance out the high iron hay in my local area and provide minimum amounts of lysine, biotin, vitamin E, etc.  However, the California Trace doesn't provide adequate amounts of Vitamin E for an actively competing endurance horse, so until the spring grass comes-in the horses continue to receive 1000 - 2000 IU of Elevate Vitamin E daily.. [Vitamin E is present in large quantities in fresh grass but rapidly degrades in stored hay]  Per Dr. Garlinghouse and Patti Stedman's online advice I am also adding salt to the feed daily (in addition to a free choice salt block). The purpose of the salt (besides providing basic daily requirements) is to adapt the horse's taste to higher amounts of salt so they willingly eat salty mashes before and during trailing and endurance rides.  I am optimistic that things still look good for No Frills and we are headed for 55 miles!

Stuck!

Sunny gave us a little unwanted excitement this afternoon.  We were just about to leave to the store and as I walked outside I saw Sunny kick up (in response to Rogan and him play biting) and catch his hind end over the fence.  He immediately froze and did not struggle. I called Graham and we first put Rogan away so he stopped antagonizing the situation.  Then I haltered Sunny and we quickly assessed the situation. We initially put a readily available hay bale under Sunny's hind legs to see if he could push himself up; this did not work and I was concerned about Graham's and my safety as we maneuvered his hind legs.  Next, Graham tried to pry the board off which was also unsuccessful. Sunny continued to remain perfectly still. I then administrated a light sedative and Graham went for the chain saw. (I took the photo while waiting for the chain saw).  This was working until the board started to vibrate which startled Sunny into lunging forward and pulling the board off the post.  He was free!!  He was free within 5 minutes (definitely less than 10 minutes) of becoming stuck.  Most of the pressure had been on his left flank and groin. He has a few superficial scrapes on his left gaskin, but seems a little more stiff on the right hind a few hours later.  His legs and joints all palpate and feel okay without significant swelling several hours later.  He completely ripped out all of his stitches from his sarcoid mass removal, and it was gaping open, slowly dripping blood.  On a positive note, he already had his anti-inflammatory (Equioxx) on-board from the mass removal.. Now he gets antibiotics too! Oh boy! I added a little more sedation, scrubbed the area with chlorhexidine solution and used up the last of the lidocaine which unfortunately only blocked about 1/2 of the opened incision.  I gathered my clean, but not-yet re-sterilized surgical tools (yet another reason for the antibiotics), some spare/expired small animal strength suture (should still be sterile) and went to work.  It closed well and I added a row of staples for some extra (hopefully) holding power. 

A few positives -

1. I was amazed at how calm and sensible Sunny stayed, he truly waited for us to help him and did not panic (this also bodes well for my safety during adverse events at rides)

  

2. I truly think he is okay and will heal very well, though I except him to be pretty stiff for the next few days (and of course I will be keeping a very close eye on him). 

 Give us a few weeks (about 3 weeks exactly, wink wink) and we should be all set for the 55 at No Frills.  

The re-sutured surgical site