Re: RC: Re: tie ups and carbs

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 12/19/99 7:15:06 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
teddy@runningbear.com writes:

<< Depends greatly on what KIND of alfalfa.. >>

Also depends on the horse.  Tie-ups on alfalfa are generally due to calcium 
problems.  The calcium in the alfalfa causes the horse to not produce very 
much calcitonin--the hormone that regulates blood calcium.  Then when he gets 
in a situation where he needs to mobilize calcium--such as heavy exercise--he 
can't.  Some horses can deal with this better than others--we see horses here 
on identical diets of local alfalfa mixed with local grass (and our Oregon 
alfalfa is not overly rich)--some can't tolerate it at all, and will tie up, 
and others will go merrily on their way with nary a problem.  We also have 
one who can't tolerate it--we didn't have him on any last year, and he was 
fine, but he missed a couple of races here after tying up on a training ride. 
 Interesting to me was the difference in his post-tie-up recovery curve vs. 
horses I've seen ridden past the ragged edge at rides--this guy had HIGH CPK 
and SGOT but cleared both in less than a week, whereas I've seen many with 
similar profiles that were ridden "past the edge" so to speak that took 
several weeks to reach a normal profile.  At any rate, no more alfalfa--no 
more problem.  He can eat it just fine when not working (and is on it for 
winter) but he will darn sure come back off of it as soon as he goes back to 
work.

BTW--the genetics group at UC Davis is doing some work on the heritability of 
tying up, and I would suspect that there is a strong heritability among those 
who have calcium regulation problems--this guy is related to several top 
endurance horses who have to have careful calcium management, but more of 
them have manifested it by thumping when out of whack rather than by tying up.

Heidi


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