Thanks for your response. I apologize if I responded to a tone which
wasn't intended, it's true it's hard to communicate without the benefits
of body language and expression to confirm one's intentions.
I certainly agree with you that Feeding the Magic Bullet is a poor
choice. I helped prepare some nutritional analysis At Cal Poly for some
racehorse trainers that fed poor quality hay, way too much protein and
not enough energy, couldn't figure out why the horses seemed "tired" and
wanted advice on a "supplement to perk 'em up." Amazing what a little
good nutrition will do.
I also REALLY agree that education and knowledge about some basic
physiology is a better use of resources than is squirting Stuff down a
horse's throat willy-nilly to make him perform better, perhaps beyond
what he's really capable of. Also that effort in keeping a horse
hydrated and eating during a ride is alot more effective than
dose-syringing this and that during a ride.
Actually, I don't specifically feed probiotics during a ride, but I do
believe in feeding them the rest of the time as an addition to but NOT a
replacement for good, balanced nutrition and sensible management. I
also believe in giving a horse as much help as possible before starting
a ride, which is why I feed probiotics in between on a regular basis.
Duncan Fletcher made an excellent point that I hadn't considered (and
should have) that the microorganisms themselves produce gas as well as
does fermenting feed. Thanks, Duncan, knew that and should have
remembered. OK, so, following this to it's natural conclusion, if
probiotics were bolused during a ride, and if the gut motility was
increasingly slowing down due to dehydration, not eating etc, perhaps
feeding a big whack of probiotics during a ride to a wannabe-colicky
horse would produce even more gas than would normally be present and
maybe even compound the problem? Hmmm.... However, bottom line, I
agree that maintaining hydration and eating is a MUCH better approach
than trying to feed Instant Solution. I apologize if poor wording on my
part led anyone to believe that I advocated probiotics on the basis of
a Quick Fix, I do not.
BTW, I do believe there is some research evidence that exercise stress
will affect GI microflora, as will other forms of stress, etc, although
I don't remember if this in response to changes in pH, motility,
temperature or what. More hmmm. Anyway, that's the primary reason why
I like feeding probiotics to help the horse recover after a ride. I
think it was work Glade did at Northwestern some time back, but I may be
mistaken.
Thanks for the discussion, Phil.
Susan Evans