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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
 
(406) 642-9640
 
ranch(at)sisuwest(dot)us

Replies
[RC] Carbohydrates During a Ride, Aaron Turnage