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Re: carbo during exercise



Beth Glace wrote:
> 
> Well, now I've got to jump in the discussion.  It seems that giving
> 1 ounce of carbohydrate per hour to a horse DURING EXERCISE  is being
> called "carbo loading", a takeoff on what human athletes do.  Of
> course, this is not at all carbohydrate loading.

No, I agree---I think the term "carbo loading" is used fairly casually,
but what we all are really discussing is using carbos as a supplement to
maintain blood glucose during exercise itself.  There's enough good
research around to convince me at least that true carbo-loading doesn't
work in horses, and I'm not particularly convinced about it in humans,
either.

It would seem
> to me that all discussions regarding carbohydrate intake during
> exericise in endurance  horses is moot until someone does research
> which demonstrates:
> 
>  1) that glycogen is severly depleted in endurance
> horses at the end of an endurance ride when animals are fed typical
> foodstuffs; 2)  that providing horses with  such small amounts of
> carb during exercise [1/2 that recommended for a 150 pound man]
> actually spares use of muscle glycogen to a statistically significant
> degree 3) that enhanced glycogen levels actually allow horses to
> perform for a longer time at the intensities typical during endurance
> events.

Well, I politely disagree with you a bit here, Beth.  I truly believe
there's a symbiotic relationship between the folks in the field trying
to make a better mousetrap and the idiots in the lab coats like me
trying to prove the mousetraps catches a statistically significant
number of mice.  Almost all of the research projects I've done came
about because of some initial conversation thinking, gee, I wonder if
this makes a difference?

However---the studies on glycogen depletion have been done on endurance
horses, demonstrating that during a 100 mile or multi-day rides,
glycogen can be almost completely depleted and cannot be repleted
overnight with typical feeding regimens (with obvious implications for
multi-day competitors or people considering the XP2000 ride---once the
glycogen is gone, you are DONE), and glycogen depletion rates for
50-mile horses somewhere around 50% for completers, I think.

KER is planning a ton of work with carbo products and endurance horses
this year, so I think starting with ENPS this summer maybe, there should
be a deluge of excellent data of just how carbo products affect the
energetic pathways.  Personally, I'm practically drooling waiting for
the data to be published, but then I'm kinda weird that way.

Seeya,

Susan G



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