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[RC] oxygen debt ? - Mom Alexander

I'm in the Pre-Nursing (RN) program at the local college here, and in my Anatomy & Phys. class we are studying aerobic and anaerobic muscle metabolism right now.  During the lecture my professor was showing slides of horses running, jumping, etc, and I was wondering why.  Then he said that humans have a built in "oxygen debt" sensor and when we  reach this point, the point at which we can no longer replenish our oxygen debt, we will fall down exhausted and lay there panting until we have recovered from our oxygen debt.  Then we can get up and go on.  The reason for the slides of horses, he said, is that horses do not have this "oxygen debt" sensor and can and will literally run themselves to death.    WHAT?!!!   Does anyone know if this is true? Any veterinarians out there ?  Anyone?  Being new to endurance, this scared me to death!!  I always thought that if my horse was very tired, he would slow down or stop just as I would until I could catch my breath.  If this oxygen debt thing is true, I will have to rethink my whole conditioning program........help!