I was up in the Rifle rodeo slack this afternoon and don't have much to report except that, Moon was not himself during warm-up and ran very slow in his competition run. A full second off of the fast times. Poor guy. He put together a good enough run. He just didn't wasn't firing.
The last time he felt like this was a few weeks back when our air was filled with smoke from fires all around. That time his run in Hotchkiss was a good one as well, it just lacked speed.
No smoke to blame breathing problems on this time, but it was hot and the humidity has been very high...Not 'Georgia' humidity by any means...but it's monsoon season here, so it's quite muggy and sticky. I think the problem was because the slack was run in the middle of the afternoon, when the air is the worst.
I am always conscientious of Moon's breathing. I know his respiratory system is not the greatest...but I take great pains to keep it as peak as I can. It's more about providing proper supplementation than it is about his conditioning program. But even that only goes so far. Today just wasn't our day.
I suspect there are drug therapies...and I even seem to remember hearing/reading something about Charmayne James having to give Scamper some sort of breathing treatments before his runs after he suffered a respiratory illness. Right now, I guess I am just going to have to be more careful about the times of day that I run him until the humidity passes.
We are up in Salida tomorrow...an evening performance. Hoping all will be back to normal.