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Looking After Yourself And Your Horse

One of the aims of TREC is to educate people into how to enjoy the countryside safely. On a TREC route you are wholly responsible for the welfare of yourself and your horse, and there are some simple steps you can take to ensure that you can both keep going as long as possible.

On a level one or two route with a fit horse in cool weather, you may not need to worry about much of this section - but the weather can sometimes catch us out and any help you can give your horse on the POR will aid his recovery for a good performance in the PTV.

Before you set off

It's always wise to make sure your horse is fully hydrated before you set off, and when you arrive at the venue after travelling. Feeding very sloppy sugar beet (see the brown nose on the right!) for a few days beforehand can help you to achieve this. Ensure that your horse is fit enough and fed appropriately, you may wish to introduce a mix to ensure that he has enough energy to keep going. (Make any changes to your horse's diet gradually, and leave at least an hour before feeding and your start time).

Be prepared

Firstly - ask the organiser about whether there will be water provided on the course, either at checkpoints or stream crossings. If there won't be, then you need to plan ahead - carry more water with you and be prepared to be inventive!  Make sure that you carry enough drinking water for yourself while riding, and have lucozade or another isotonic sports drink before and after you ride - there are a number of hydration systems available which the rider can carry on their back, rather than having bottles taking up room in saddlebags - enquire at your local outdoor supplies shop. Out on route, there will usually be some source of water for horses - streams, rivers, fords, troughs and springs.  Carry a sponge on a length of twine to dangle into rivers/streams as you ride over bridges, carry a plastic freezer bag, folding dog bowl or empty fabric conditioner bottle to allow you to scoop up water and pour it on your horse. If you have a bottle with a sports cap, you can use this to squirt water into the side of your horse's mouth if he is reluctant to drink from other sources.

Other things to think about

If your horse is struggling, sweating buckets or reluctant to go forward then forget about speed for a while. Allow your horse to relax and rest, let him graze as you go and also at checkpoints to keep his gut moving and get water in his system, get off to lead for a bit and loosen your girth when you do so, clip hairy horses and if they have a long mane, plait it up out of the way. It is much more important that you get home in one piece than it is to reach the optimum time.

Do you know your horse's normal resting pulse and breathing rates? Do you know how they change during work, straight after work and then 15 minutes after work as he recovers normally?? If you do, you will then be able to quantitively assess how he's doing during a POR and whether you need to slow down, have a rest, slosh him or, if he's really suffering, retire.  

Keep a check on your horse's hydration levels - if you pinch the skin, it should spring back to being flat immediately - if it doesn't then he's dehydrated, so you should try to get him to drink as soon as possible, and/or let him eat some lush green vegetation.
Then, when you get back, offer him plenty of water - sugar beet water is a good way of getting them to drink away from home. Be alert for any changes for a few days after you get home, too. Don't be tempted to over-feed electrolytes as this can be very dangerous - it's better to give the horse free access to a salt lick in his stable so that he can regulate his own salt levels.

When you get back

When you get back, if your horse is sweaty cool him off by washing him down with cool water on a sponge, then using a sweat scraper. Repeat this as many times as is necessary. If the weather is cool, make sure he doesn't catch a chill by using a fleece cooler to wick remaining water away from his skin. Make sure to rinse his legs off too, especially if he wears boots - the tissues in the leg need to cool down and you need to make sure that there's no grit/dirt underneath them. 

When his breathing has returned to normal, offer the horse a drink, a nice sloppy feed (with electrolytes in if you decide to feed them), let him eat hay or graze and chill out - you've both worked very hard, so try to make sure that you're both well rested and refuelled before you go for the next phase or travel home.

Thanks to R. Eberhardt, K. Dawson, E. Young, K. Norman and E. McGrath for use of their photgraphs on this page.