RE: To Carbo or Not to Carbo??

[Cheryl Newbanks <horsetrails@inficad.com>]

OOps I meant to send this to RC and Ti, not just Ti so I will follow with 
Ti's reply too:}

On Monday, January 04, 1999 1:50 PM, Tivers@aol.com [SMTP:Tivers@aol.com] 
wrote:
> In a message dated 1/4/99 9:58:39 AM Pacific Standard Time,
> horsetrails@inficad.com writes:
>
> << Ok I'll come out of hiding:}  I used carbs on Blue for his first 
season.
>   He did great and the carbs gave him that last little ummpffhhh that he
>  needed in the last 6 miles when we were first started.  Then I forgot it 
>  one time and he did just as good without it.  That may of been that over 
>  time I've modified my feeding program, learned what he will eat at a 
ride
>  and what he won't and so now he eats tons the night before and doesn't 
run
>  out of gas anymore.  I never had any trouble with carbs, cept for the 
mess
>  and the hassle of giving it every 2 hours.  I've since stopped because 
once
>  I found out he is doing just as well without it it didn't make any sense 
to
>  me giving it to him.  I try to keep it simple.  But carbs really helped 
us
>  to get past his wall when he used to have one:}
>
>                                    Cheryl Newbanks >>
>
> And your protocol was 2 oz roughly every 2 hours?
>
> ti
Yup actually i used more like 2.5 oz every two hours.  Blue is a big arab 
standing at 15.2h and just bumping it up 1/2 oz more made the difference. 
 When I tried 3oz every 2 hours he got hot headed and spooky.  So a small 
change can make the difference.  I personally can't imagine using 3+oz at 
all because of the reaction I got from Blue on 3 oz.  He spooked at every 
shadow, rock and bird and this is a horse that NEVER spooks and is 
virtually bomb proof.

Personally Ti, I like his recoveries better without the carbs, but that may 
be because by the time I got done using it we'd had 5 ld's and 1 50 under 
his belt and he probably was just better at the whole thing anyway.  What 
do I like more without it, he seems to get better scores on hydration (and 
he's always drank great from the beginning), doesn't tire himself out as 
much, he's always had phenomenal cardiac recoveries so I don't know if that 
has helped any there, but he pees now when before using carbs I'd get 
pretty nervous because he wouldn't pee during a ride and would wait an hour 
or more after the ride until he'd go.  Without carbs he will pee at the 
vc's now.  That is the big thing I've noticed.  Then again my horse is a 
shy pee'r <vbg>, he will not pee in his trailer, has to have an old pile of 
hay to pee on at home, hates to get his legs messy, so maybe he is finally 
saying "AH heck with it" and just peeing when he has to.

Pros:  Carbs got us through the first year of ld's and our first 50 without 
a lack of energy towards the end of the ride.  I found it a useful 
supplement till we got to the point where he was fit enough to not need it 
anymore.  It was also a useful supplement to use until Blue learned to eat 
in camp the night before a ride, which is probably the real reason why he 
doesn't run out of gas anymore. On my backup horse who I've done 2 ld's on, 
on his last 25 I used carbs at the vc only so we'd have that edge we need 
towards the end without getting tired.  It worked and I was pleased with 
his recoveries, we top 10'd and he did score good for BC cept I'm a light 
weight and we NEVER WIN BC, always loose out to a heavy weight rider:{  I 
sure wish they would implement separate BC weight categories but then that 
is another thread all together<GRIN>!



                                  Cheryl Newbanks
~~~           ~~ ^ ^        SW Region
~~~\      _ ~~/ /\ /        Buckeye, AZ
       (   ) __    ) ' '        horsetrails@inficad.com
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