Re: [RC] Carbohydrates During a Ride - Sisu West Ranch
"....you feed high sugar/starch feeds, then the insulin levels will rise in
order to help process that glucose into the ..."
Disclaimer: I am not Susan G or even a
self-proclaimed world-renowned expert on horse feed.
It is my understanding that when sugars are
absorbed during exercise, they can be immediately used without processing using
insulin. My brittle, juvenile diabetic mother's body did not produce
insulin on demand to regulate blood sugar levels. If she ate sugar, her
blood sugar would go high etc. She injected herself with a standard amount
of insulin twice a day. If she did an unusual amount of exercise,
the insulin would help her body process the sugar for storage, and her
blood sugar would drop with disastrous results. If on the other hand she
ate apples while she gardened, she was fine.
My reasoning is that sugar/starch consumed by
endurance horses during a ride is used directly without any bouncing around of
blood sugar caused by insulin production. Somewhere I think I read that
the spike in blood sugar in a horse happens on the order of a half hour (as
opposed to a few minutes, or many hours) after a high sugar meal is
consumed. If this is the case, the sugar would hit the blood stream after
the vet hold, just when the horse needs it to help burn the fat it is using to
supplement its energy production.
Ed
Ed & Wendy Hauser 2994 Mittower
Road Victor, MT 59875
