TI Exposed

[Oldwaggy@aol.com]

I've been thinking about writing this post for awhile but have always 
hesitated.  Tom Ivers is certainly aware of the image he has with some people 
and probably takes some pleasure in cultivating it.  I don't mean to 
interfere.  On the other hand, some people on this list seem genuinely upset 
with Tom and a few recent comments have appeared unreasonably hostile.  Maybe 
our, or more specifically, my son's, personal experience with Tom will help 
some people better understand what Mr. Ivers is all about.

Two years ago my then 16 yr. old son, Willie, was looking for a topic for his 
high school science project.  I directed him to the ridecamp archives about 
one of the earlier iterations of the carb/fat/whatever debates.   Some 
writers had suggested that whatever food or supplement was given to a horse 
immediately before or during a ride wouldn't make any difference.  The common 
belief was that a horse doesn't have time to utilize anything fed to it any 
closer to the day of a ride than the evening before.  Tom disputed this and 
suggested that any interested rider try a glucometer to test blood glucose 
levels with his or her own horse and find out.  Willie read the many 
excellent posts from various authors in the archives and worked out an 
outline for his project.  He felt he needed more information, though, on 
using glucometers on horses before he started out.

Willie asked me if he should try contacting Tom Ivers directly since Tom was 
the one made the glucometer suggestion in the first place.  I said I thought 
he would be to busy to reply but that there was no harm in trying.  Willie 
composed and sent Tom  an extremely lengthy e-mail outlining his proposed 
project and asking about glucometer protocols.  This was on a Sunday morning. 
 Tom sent a detailed response in less than an hour.  With Tom's help and the 
aid of one of the vet interns at the nearby Alamo Pintado Equine Veterinary 
Clinic, Willie developed a practical technique for testing blood glucose 
levels for his project.

Willie's basic idea was to try different feeds on Remington in the morning, 
ride him, and test for blood glucose levels until they were back at the point 
where he started before feeding.   He used Remington since he was already a 
veteran endurance horse.  Willie didn't want any spurious results from using 
a horse which significantly improved in condition just from the test rides.   
Two hours after he began feeding, we would start riding at a state park 
nearby, Willie on Rem and me on Skjoldur to help out.  We would then ride as 
fast as the terrain would permit for the next two and a half hours.  Willie 
tested blood glucose levels at the beginning of each feeding and every half 
hour thereafter for seven hours, the point at which blood glucose generally 
went back to baseline.  This went on for several weekends in December and 
January during our off-season for endurance.  We always rode exactly the same 
course at the same starting time and at reasonably similar ambient 
temperatures.

Generally, Willie found that blood glucose levels rose from baseline for two 
hours after feeding commenced.  Once exercise started there was a dip and 
then another rise to a plateau which lasted until blood glucose levels began 
to taper down six hours after feeding started.  The highest and most 
consistent levels came from a combination of hay and Elite 10, a highly 
digestible extruded feed (looks like dog kibble) based on corn and other 
grains.  Interestingly, this general pattern was true of all feeds, even hay 
alone.  It was also interesting to see that dosing Remington with 2 ounces of 
carbohydrate supplement at the start of a ride did not elevate blood glucose 
levels over those from hay and concentrate without the supplement, but only 
made them spikier.

Willie put all of this together in a report and e-mailed Tom a graph of his 
glucometer readings.  A few weeks later, Willie e-mailed Tom to tell him that 
his project had won first prize for Willie's age group at his school's 
science fair.  Tom e-mailed back, "Willie, you have made my year."  I believe 
Tom's generosity with his time and praise taught my son a lesson he will 
remember for a long time.  We don't always realize how important it is for a 
child to communicate with an adult who is ready to listen and respect the 
child's ideas.  (By the way, Willie won the grand prize the next year with a 
project showing that bacterial pollution in our local streams is the product 
of inadequate septic systems and not runoff from the usual alleged culprit, 
horse and cattle waste.)

Obviously, Willie's testing of our one horse has limited significance to 
other riders.  This is especially the case since Icelandics are reputed to 
have somewhat different digestive tracts than other horses (shorter small 
intestine and longer large intestine).  It has helped me reach some 
conclusions about safely competing my own horse, however, which is all that 
matters to me.  I believe that taking care to feed my horse during a ride 
does make a difference.  I don't use a carbohydrate supplement because my 
horse eats like a pig anyway at vet checks.  If I did see the need to use a 
carb supplement during a ride, I wouldn't worry about the sky falling because 
I know it wouldn't dramatically change my horse's blood glucose levels from 
what they would be anyway from his usual feed.  I also know I don't need to 
supplement my horse's diet with corn oil, etc.,  since he holds his weight 
without it.  (According to the scales at Alamo Pintado, Remington's weight 
increased from 806 lbs. to 830 lbs. after completing 2,835 miles in the last 
22 months.)

Since I think the plodders like Remington and me can benefit just as much 
from the latest in nutritional information as consistent top tenners, I 
really appreciate the contribution to ridecamp from the various participants 
in the great debate.  But like most debates, I think the sides in this one 
are not as far apart as the rhetoric indicates.  I'll bet the proponents of a 
high fat diet will freely admit that fat supplementation is not so important 
to a horse that can tolerate enough grain or other concentrates to hold its 
weight.  I'll bet that Tom Ivers will freely admit that carbohydrate 
supplementation is not so important to a horse which readily eats its grain 
or other concentrate during a ride. I'll also bet that both sides will admit 
what most seasoned riders have figured out anyway; it really helps your horse 
to keep eating grain, other concentrates, hay or whatever else it will eat 
during a long ride.

If I can make a constructive comment, I do hope that those on our list with 
superior experience or education in horse nutrition will do as much to 
explain where they agree as they do to explain where they disagree.  Since 
the whole point of the discussion seems to be to  exchange information, it 
helps the lay person like me to find practical significance in it all if the 
differences in opinion are not over exaggerated just for argument's sake.  
Maybe if we weren't so quick to draw swords, we wouldn't be so quick to take 
offense.  Getting back to TI, I know he can take care of himself.   But, if 
there is anyone out there who has both read this far and really has in it for 
TI on a personal level, please be forewarned there is pretty smart hacker 
type teenager here in the Santa Ynez Valley who you wouldn't want to mess 
with in cyberspace.

John Parke
Solvang CA


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