Metabolic Lessons Lead to Triumph in Vermont

The Biltmore Syndrome
Since my first AERC ride nearly 20 years ago, I'd never had a full-fledged metabolic pull until this year's Biltmore. My friend Lisa Green had entered her mare LR April Breeze in the FEI 100 on May 5, and I offered to accompany her on
Breeze's older full sister, LR Amana Tabi. I'd competed "Moo" twice before and crewed her for more than a decade, including the 2006 US team trials and 2008 & 2010 national championships, so I thought I knew how to take care of this mare.



Amana & me at Biltmore: not our day!

Amana is little, but years of training on Virginia's rock-strewn mountains have made her powerful and a challenging to keep in check. Lisa and I knew we needed to start slow, and stuck admirably to that goal our the first loop. We did our best on the second loop, which was long and challenging. Amana kept wanting to go faster despite wearing a severe bit and my consistent use of "half-halt" aids. The two sisters were clearly feeding off each other competitively.

While talking at the second vet check, Lisa and I agreed to split up. I stayed an extra 10 minutes in the hold so she & Breeze could get well ahead. Amana was eating and drinking well, but had not yet peed, so we spread a bag of shavings near our crew area as encouragement. Still no luck.

On the 3rd loop, I ended up riding with a happy young law school student named Clarke aboard Orion, the experienced 100-mile horse of our ride managers, Stagg and Cheryl Newman. Amana seemed content with the slower pace and I really enjoyed getting to know Clarke. As we finished the loop, a light rain helped drop temps but bounced the humidity levels back up. Amana still wouldn't pee, although she had "all A's" on her vet card and continued to eat and drink.

About six miles into the fourth loop, I pulled Amana into tall grass just off the trail to try (again) to get her to pee. No luck. She drank well at one of the water stops, but then got sluggish towards the end of the loop, hesitating pick up a trot. Feeling despondent, I dismounted and hand-walked her the last several miles into to the hold. Amazingly, she trotted out and had a normal CRI during the vet inspection. However, my fellow AERC board member Nick Kohut didn't hear ANY gut sounds and held my card.

Amana ate steadily during the next 20 minutes, and trotted out willingly during our represent to Nick, but he still was not hearing any gut sounds. This mean I was pulled and sent to Biltmore's spaciously new treatment facility up on a rise. As Lisa's son Hunter Green walked with me, we could see several horses being treated ahead of us. The so-called "Biltmore syndrome" looked to be in full force. While waited for our turn, Amana started to act distinctly uncomfortable and Drs. Bob Marshall and Lynn Johnson whisked her into a stall as soon as it came available.

Her bloodwork showed several parameters, including calcium, were way out of normal range, with severely compromised kidney function. As it grew dark, with two out of an eventual four bags of fluids in her, Amana finally peed and began looking happy and alert - just in time as Lisa arrived, having decided to rider-option Breeze.

Lisa has since decided to retire Amana and in July bred her to Erin Champion's stallion Kongtiki in July, while she loaned Breeze to a friend from Holland who successfully finished the even tougher and more humid Old Dominion 100 on June 10.

The "Beast of the East"
The Old Dominion is rightly known as "The Beast of the East." This was the ride's second year using a two-day format, so Teresa and I were able to complete Gryphon and Welcome in the Old Dominion 50 on June 9, then I could still run Waites Run for the 100s the following day. Our horses passed the first vet check with no issues, but the second loop seemed even longer and rockier than usual, with much of the trail turned into a semi-creek from all the rain. During the second away hold, I had asked one of the vets to recheck Gryphon's heartrate. He had dropped to the 40s, but Welcome was still in the 60s. Hmmmmm.

Teresa & Welcome in Ohio

Both horses had good vet scores and CRIs at the last hold. With just 8 miles to go, and discovering we were just within Top Ten, we went faster than we should have to the finish. Gryphon squeaked by with a 64/64 at his completion exam  (he normally drops to the 50s even without sponging) but Welcome failed to recover in the 30 minutes allowed, and did not receive a completion. Dr. Lynne monitored her carefully and gave her a tummy soother of sucralfate and some other buffers, then released us to get the horses home.

Teresa's PEMF machine proved its worth later that evening, after we got the horses home, helping stimulate good appetite and gut sounds to speed Welcome's recovery. The next day, my longtime friend Samantha Zarek and I ran the Waites Run gate & go (57 mile mark for the 100s) and again saw firsthand the toll the unusually hot & humid (even for Virginia) weather was taking on the horses.

Black Sheep Blaahs
I talked Teresa into coming with me to the Black Sheep Boogie ride in Ohio three weeks later, where I planned to compete Siena. We'd loved the trails last November, but hot, humid summer weather made them treacherous. A heavy rainstorm started up just as we were heading to bed, requiring us to buckle on their rain sheets. While the rain stopped by early morning, I was concerned about our horses struggling in the mud and we agreed to downgrade from the 50 to the 25-mile ride. As if confirming our decision, another heavy batch of rain came through as the 50s were tacking up.

Siena somehow dinged her right front hoof bulb near the end of the loop, and was slightly off at the first vet check, so I was pulled again. Switching gears to crew for Teresa, I enjoyed catching up with Sallie Sullivan who was also hanging out in the vetting area as her daughter competed Ivan.

Teresa kept Welcome slow and steady and earned a completion, but while talking to the vet we noticed one of her haunches was higher than the other.  About 20 minutes later, I was grazing Welcome when she peed dark. We found Dr. Bob Marshall, who helped us administer 2 bags of fluids at my trailer, stabilizing her for the trip home. Both mares arrived at my place in good shape, and we felt we dodged a bullet.

Besting Ontario's Heat Wave
My next endurance adventure was working as a 2* Technical Delegate at the Coates Creek ride in New Lowell, Ontario on June 30. I received excellent mentoring from Heather Hoyns, Rocio Echeverri from Costa Rica and Ron from New Zealand. Canada was experiencing a heat wave and the officials and vets decided to reverse the order of the loops for the second day of the ride so that the 21-mile loop would be finished earlier in the day. Since I wasn't needed as an official on the second day, I agree to ride my friend Kelly Corbin's little chestnut gelding, Summit.


Yes, my helmet is backwards.Blame the intense heat!

He was both spunky and smooth, reminding me of a cross between Gryphon and Siena, but refused to drink on the long first loop. Having flashbacks to Biltmore, I finally got him to pee on trail (after peeing myself!) and kept aggressively giving him electrolytes and calcium gluconate. I spent extra time at each water stop, and even used the water hose force some extra fluid down his gullet. All this effort paid off, and "Sum Sum" finished in good shape, much to my relief.

Side note: My friend Libby Llop, her son Quentin Peter and wife Anne Dewar had just started their trip home from the ride when a van of Canada Day vacationers (returning to Toronto and using a side road to avoid traffic) ran the stop sign and hit them sideways, totaling both truck and trailer but miraculously leaving them and their horses relatively unhurt. PHEW!)

Armed with these experiences from our recent rides, Teresa and I tackled the Vermont 75, with Rich (her sister's boyfriend, a farmer & CDL driver) flying in to help us make the 600+ mile drive. We drove through the night Thursday and arrived by 6 a.m. Friday, giving the horses a full day to rest and recover. Teresa discovered that the bed & breakfast she'd rented was only three miles away, and came to fetch me for a go-see. I was gone less than an hour, but that's all it took for G to scare W into the portable corral, where she somehow scraped the inside of one back leg.



Welcome the unicorn in cool VT

You can imagine how awful I felt, all that effort and Teresa might not even be able to start. We trotted Welcome for DVMs Pam Karner and then Heather Hoyns, who much to our relief said the mare's hind end looked fine but she might need some work on her right shoulder (a perennial issue). Teresa used her new generator w
ith the PEMF machine, then went to pulse our friend's horses while I stayed with the treatment vet to get Welcome pre-loaded with fluids. She advised we keep icing the hurt leg, which I did every hour on the hour, using an ice pack and leg wrap to hold it in place. Somehow that afternoon we squeezed in a few hours for Rich to pre-drive the holds.


It sure was weird sleeping in, since the 75-miler didn't start until 9:15 a.m. We came into the 20-mile vet check just after noon. As while Teresa trotted her mare out for the vets, I could see a wobble in Welcome's step. The vet did too and held her card. That was a stressful hold, as T did all she could to massage and help Welcome. Libby and I had tacked up and were heading out on the second loop as Teresa trudged back up the hill from the represent. I couldn't tell much from her body language, but when she said that all 4 vets had cleared her to continue, I immediately leapt off G and started tacking Welcome (Libby continued on).

T & Welcome leading the way, as they did most of the day. I'm brandishing a half-eaten bag of carrots. 

The day passed in a happy mix of trotting and cantering wherever we could, walking the steeper hills and allowing the horses to continually grab grass from the side of the trail. A nearly-full 5 lb. bag of carrots I grabbed for the second loop was all gone well before it ended. One of our favorite memories was being given beers at Margaritaville, one of the runners' stops. As much as we tried to stay hydrated, we quickly felt drunk and happy. I even managed to turn a cartwheel after clearing the second vet check!

Rich continued to be the best crew ever, always meeting us at the in-timer after helping Libby. It was like he'd done this many times before, and best of all, Gryphon really took a shine to him so I was free to eat or nap or whatever during the brief rest stops.

During the third hold (pronounced "Talkenback") Libby gave us some great advice about making time to get off single track before dark. We were able to do so, and got into the final hold around 9 p.m.

Teresa's bright pink-lighted breast collar was the perfect beacon to help us through the final loop. We occasionally rode with other riders or runners, and got great help and both horse and people food from Kristi Johnson's husband at the midpoint crew station. With only a few miles to go, Karen Isaacs, her 9-year old daughter and friend in the 100 came zooming by, on great horses bred by the Meutens. We played it safe and arrived at 12:45 a.m. Gryphon was freaked out by the lights and took a few minutes to calm down enough to vet, but thankfully we made it through. What a great feeling! All our hard work and lessons learned paid off.

The perfect weather held until around 9 the next morning, when the rain that had been steadily moving north finally hit our area. Just as well, it kept temperatures cool for the long drive home!