This would apply to carbohydrates as well. Indeed there was a recent study
that showed that GAGs were depleted by about 60% in endurance contests.
Electrolytes are not the only nutritional challenge faced by equine athletes.
Protein, especially some individual amino acids, is another. Trace minerals
another. Vitamins another. When these nutritional components are optimized,
the horse is going to have a decided performance/health advantage. In order
to make everybody even, you'd have to find the rider poorest financially or
intellectually and downgrade the feeding allowances to that level. It makes
better sense to encourage competitors to discover and use optimal nutritional
support for their animals.
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