Getting through the Vet Checks at Tevis

Arriving at the Last Chance Vet Check. The first thing we see are lots of volunteers. While Bo drinks we get ready to sponge him and get his pulse taken.

After getting my pulse, I walked over to the vet. Note the vet card is partially filled out. I was handed the card and told to trot away from the vet. If there was a problem they would call me back, otherwise keep going.

One of the most useful pieces of advice I was given prior to riding the Tevis this year was to make sure I got in line to vet as soon as I got my horse’s pulse timed in.

This is good advice.  If you stop for even a minute after getting your pulse and in-time to let your horse eat, or for you to run to the restroom – when you come back you could have a half a dozen horses or more in front of you in the line to vet through.

On a ride like Tevis, every minute counts.  If you spend five extra minutes at 8 of the vet checks, that is forty minutes that you could have used walking later in the ride rather than trotting if you are pushing the cut-off times.

Sara vetted behind me. I got to the other side and stopped at the hay to let Bo eat while we waited. This is Sarah trotting towards me.

I had luck on my side this year because I never had to wait in a line to vet.  Perhaps there would be one horse in front of me but the majority of the time I just walked up to the vet and vetted right through.

I  never had to wait for Bo’s pulse to drop down to or below criteria either.  That was really nice!  All of the heat training I did paid off.  I can do another post about that later.  I also added some new supplements to his diet a couple of months prior to the ride that I think also helped.

I thought they did an excellent job of setting up the vet checks at the Tevis this year.  I will try to explain through posting  a couple of photos and describing how the system worked.  This may help riders who are contemplating this ride for the first time.

When we first arrived at the check, there was water and volunteers to take down our arrival time.  Prior to each vet check was a 1/4 mile vet check sign.

We let the horses drink and put some water on them to cool them.  The volunteers are great at helping with this!  Most of the time a volunteer was available to do a courtesy P&R check.  Then once our horses were down, we  got our in-time slips and walked to the vet area.

Each time we went through a checkpoint or got our pulse taken (assuming it was down to criteria) we were handed a piece of blue paper with our # and time on it.  We had to keep that to use when we left the check so they would know who we were.  It was nice that they did this as it saved time by not having to write on the actual vet cards as many times.

One of the volunteers holds Bo while I get something to drink and a snack.

The next step was to have a veterinarian look over our horses.  Assuming we passed the initial check they would then tell us to trot out away from the vet and not to come back unless they called us back.  That is why you do not see the scores written in for gait and attitude on my vet card.  This kept the line flowing smoothly and the checks from getting as congested as they might have been otherwise.  Fortunately for me, I was able to get through all of the checks when they were not crowded.

Once we finished trotting out there was another area with more volunteers, water and food.  This was great!  Another chance to let the horses drink, eat and also for us riders to get taken care of.  The volunteers were happy to get anything for us that we wanted.  They refilled our water bottles for us, handed us lemonade, sports drinks, watermellon, held our horses and even helped cool them down if we wanted.

Another volunteer (different checkpoint) holds Bo while he eats and I run to the restroom!

At this point, we could stay for as long as we wanted or needed to.  I spent the time wisely, choosing to get as many things accomplished as quickly as possible.  Get the horse eating, either a wet mash or hay – I tried to give him wet hay when I could as he liked that and I prefer feeding it on a hot ride whenever possible.

I also would get the horse electrolyted, my water bottles filled, try to drink an additional cup or two of lemonade or sports drink, eat something, go to the restroom.  Making sure the horse was cooled and wet prior to leaving the checks – then we’d mount up and ride on down the trail.  It sounds like a lot but the reality is that you can get all of that done in a few minutes.

If a rider wanted to, they could stay at the entrance of the vet check where there were also all of the amenities.  I would only do that if I needed to wait for the horse to recover.  My goal was to get through the vet check as quickly as possible and THEN spend extra time if I had it to spend allowing the horse to eat or doing additional cooling.  This way I didn’t run the risk of getting hung up in a line and wasting time.

At a checkpoint, volunteers helped me sponge and cool Bo down while he ate for a few minutes. This really helped him after that big climb up the canyon in the heat of the day. Thank you!

There were checks that I let Bo stay longer and eat later into the ride.  I knew I had the time and am more conservative than competitive so felt comfortable doing that rather than trying to push or be in a hurry.  I did not want to risk having Bo run into a metabolic problem.

I felt that the vet checks on the entire ride were set up really well and very user friendly especially for the horses.  Bo really benefited from the great layout and from all of the hay, carrots and mashes that were provided, as well as the huge amounts of water that was available for cooling (including the volunteers to help with that!).

Many thanks to all of the volunteers, ride management and veterinarians for doing such a fabulous job setting up the logistics on this ride.  It really made for a positive experience for us and helped contribute to a successful ride for us.