This sport of ours is a
constant challenge isn't it. I get one thing figured out and a new problem crops
up. My horse is on good pasture
24/7.
Fly is now 10yo and been
competing in LD's and 3 50's since he was 4. I don't do a lot of rides...5 was
the most I did a few years back. My horse is very competitive and has the heart
and lungs for endurance but he gets so excited, he doesn't take care of himeself
once the race begins.
It's been a long process but I suspected he has
problems with excess acid, so the past few months, I have been using Neighlox in
his soaked beet pulp and rice bran the week before a race, and then also dosing
the elytes with 25-30cc of Maalox to cut the acidity of the salt on his
tummy.
The week
prior the ride I gave him a mix of beetpulp and Complete Advantage with 1 cup of
rice bran for the added fat.
This past weekend I thought I had everything figured out because
he ate his soaked beet pulp, rice bran, elytes and Neighlox before we departed,
ate alfalfa hay in the trailer on the way to the ride, and ate his soaked bp,
elytes and rice bran in camp very well, but he didn't drink well. He ate the alfalfa hay well
in camp. I always bring water from home and have a bucket of water from the
campsite for him to choose from.
He vetted in with all A's except in gut
sounds B-.
4 hours before the
start I gave his bp,elytes (2oz of perform nwin) and rice bran, which before I
started giving him the antacid therapy, he would just pick at.
He was great on the first 15
mile loop. There was plenty of opportunity for him to drink on trail, but was
not interested which is normal for
him. He felt and acted great. At the VC, he pulsed down very
quickly, but his skin tenting was down to a B now and his gut was down to a D.
The vet said not to elyte him again before the second loop if he didn't drink at
the hold. The vet asked to see him before we departed after our 40 min hold so
she could check his gut again. He was a bit better before we started the second
loop of 15 miles, but the vet warned he still didn't sound very good and that he
needed to drink. He didn't really each much of the bp and rice bran and picked
at a few carrots at the hold. (I didn't Maalox him at the hold)
We took
off on the second loop and
he did take two very long drinks along trail this loop. At the final VC he
pulsed down quickly again, and his gut was marked a B, up from a D and
skin tenting was still a B. His attitude was great.
What can I do to help improve his gut sounds
and to help him drink better at these rides? Do you think antacids have any
negative effect on gut sounds? Should have I given him a dose of Maalox at my 1,
40 min hold? Any advice you can give is priceless to me. I respect your opinions
very much.
Thanks,
Susan and Fly
Bye
Susan, Heidi, all
Here is another "problem" as I see it. Why
would you add grain to a horse that is having stomach problems already? Grains
are very hard for the horse to digest, seems to me that by giving the horse
oats or any other form of grain would only complicate the already compromised
gut.
The more that I research the nutritional
arena of horses, the more I am convinced that we are killing our horses with
kindness.
I have stopped feeding my sport horses any
type of grains before during or right after an event. Instead they get a nice
slurry of Stabalized Rice Bran, Horse Guard Vitamins and Minerals.
The Rice Bran being the conductor of fat which equals energy and
stays in the system longer and is easy for them to
metabolize.
I have suggested that someone do a reasearch
on what the horses that are having major problems and even death were eating
before, during and after the rides and also the amount of
elytes.
Maybe I am all wet here, but I don't think
so. I think we need some data on the beginning horses in endurance before all
this elyting and carbs were made to be the "in thing" to the present and how
the feeding and metabolic problems have evolved.
From all the research that I have been doing,
and that is constant for the past eight months when I was having my problems
with colic, I can tell you that LESS is better.
I have yet to do a fifty, that will start
next year, but after Gene Nance's informative and thought provoking talk at
Bandit Springs, I do not elyte my horses for a 25 or 30 miler any longer. I do
not elyte for the ride over to an event, even if it means a 5-6 hour ride, nor
do I when we get there, or before we leave to ride back.
I found that I had problems when I gave the
elytes, and no problems with not giving them. As Gene said, we cannot
supplement elytes to totally replenish what the horses have
lost.
If I were to give elytes to a horse, it would
be a half dose in Maalox and only if I really felt the horse was in need of
such supplementing, always weighing the pros and cons of the
electrolyte.
In your's, and other's, experience, how MUCH e'lytes are supplied in
grain and hay? Am I understanding you correctly -- I should add my 2
oz of e'lytes to grain or mash at rides? As long as my horse is
"racing" within his ability on that day, I'm ok in dousing him with 2 oz of
e'lytes plus what he gets in the food he eates?
This is a very interesting thread. Many horses in all disciplines
will benefit from this. Darolyn, I'm SO sorry we've had to learn
through your tradegy. Thank you for having enough character to share
your insights with us. You were a wonderful caregiver to Adios
and he was a fortunate horse to have you in his life. I know he loved
endurance!
Heidi Smith
<heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Large concentrated boluses of e-lytes are
NOT a normal thing for the GI tract to handle, and repeated doses to an
increasingly-compromised gut will, in my opinion and experience, make
things worse instead of better. If the horse NEEDS the e-lytes that
drastically, then he needs to stop long enough to consume them in food, or
needs to stop altogether and have IV
intervention.
Susan Young Casey,
Princess of Pink; secretary, RRRSA Semper Obliquo (Always aside)
Glenndale Grace Farm, Ft Gibson, Oklahoma U.S.A.
"Ride on!
Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride on
over all obstacles, and win the race!" - Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
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