Re: RC: Re: are electrolytes a must?

[Truman Prevatt <tprevatt@mindspring.com>]

DreamWeaver wrote:I've seen people ride a lot of miles without using
electrolytes.  I think

>
> Personally, I don't think that you can use your climate as an excuse not to
> electrolyte.  No matter where you ride. I don't think it matters if you
> ride where it's hot, or hot and humid, or hot and dry, or
> whatever.......our horses are sweating, they get hot and we owe it to them
> to keep them healthy and not just in good shape when they finish a ride,
> but we need to pay a lot more attention to post-ride recoveries and how our
> horses are doing in the days following a ride.

They will sweat more in humid conditions than dry conditions simply because the
sweat does little good in cooling in humid conditions. But yes I have to agree
that you are losing a lot of sweat in most conditions unless you are going very
slow and it is very cool and very dry. I doubt that in the SE you could get away
with not using them. Maybe in the West if you had an exceptional horse and were
lucky, but I sure would not want to press the issue.

There have been numerous studies dating back to the late 80's which all have
pointed to the large amount of electrolyte losses in endurance losses. There was
extensive research on both endurance horses and eventing horses leading up to
the '96 Olympics in Atlanta. When I started in the late 80's at the first clinic
I attended, Kerry Ridgeway was the lead speaker and he told us about the
necessity of using electrolyte supplementation. As most of you know Kerry is
from CA - not the SE. In the May, June or June July issues of EN there is a very
good article by Art King on electrolytes in endurance horses. It is a good read.



>
>
> Here is a page I put together comparing electrolyte
> brands:  http://members.tripod.com/ridephotos/electrolytes/compare.html

And as you would not be surprised your list is out of date:-)  There is a new
product on the market, whose name excapes me at the moment but who claims to
have been formulated for the endurance horse. I got a sample at the Biltmore and
I think it's in the trailer. I'll try to hunt it down and send the info on to
you.

Truman