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RE: [RC] Carbohydrates in Beet Pulp - Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.* I like the analogy of an office building with all the lights turned *on. If there is a sudden power shortage, only crucial hallway lights and *the lights in the CEO's office might be left on. The same can be true in *the tired, glycogen depleted horse. He begins to shut down less vital *systems to preserve enough glucose to at least keep the nervous system *running. You're right that he can't eat enough non-structural carbs *during a ride to entirely run on the mere calories that they provide, *but if he eats carbs, he will elevate his blood glucose levels, and his *system will know that it's okay to keep all the lights on in the *building, rather than sense a shortage and begin economizing on systems *functioning. Arguably, and I'd be interested in your perspective here, *when the horse is becoming exhausted, he still has ample reserves of *structural carbs, VFA's, and fiber on board, as well as his tissue fat *reserves. Yet he is spiraling down. I don't agree with your interpretation. Speaking only from personal experience, I rarely, if ever, have looked at a crashing horse and thought, omigawd, this horse needs glucose and he'll be fine. A crashing horse is having problems in substrate distribution, ie the dehydration is causing blood to thicken and get sludgey, the heart has to pump harder to move things around, blood is shunted away from less vital organs and then *those* organ systems (ie, GI tract) start to shut down. A shot of glucose will NOT put those horses back on the trail. The issue is 99.9% a hydration deficiency and while non-structural carbos will sometimes keep a horse feeling good enough to eat and drink well, it can also just as easily make him so goofy as to forget about eating and drinking entirely. I've seen it go both ways---frankly, more towards the latter than the former, although I wouldn't vouch either way that the horses were being supplemented according to TI recommendations. Susan Garlinghouse, DVM, MS =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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