Re: Horse too fast!!

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/17/99 6:34:41 PM Pacific Standard Time, Tivers@aol.com
writes:

<< Well, I'll be very interested to hear your experiences with feeding
 carbohydrates during endurance rides. They must be diametrically opposed to
 the experiences of all the others who've tried it. Should be interesting to
 figure out why your approach didn't work. >>

"All" is a pretty big word for only having three letters.  Seems like we've
been here before.  Endurance riders have been experimenting with carbs in
various forms since the sport began, and a great many of us have observed a
great many problems with them.  We've already covered that ground, in case you
forgot.  Calorie density in the current carb "supplements" that are out isn't
any different than that of any other carbs, so the supplements of just a few
ounces are a trifle in the overall diet of a critter as large as a horse.
Heck, even as tubby as I am, I could consume carbs at that level and likely
not upset my diet one whit!  So no, I wouldn't expect to see the deleterious
effects from them that we've seen from other attempts at carb supplementation
that involved significant amounts--even so, the last time this thread came up,
NUMEROUS posters responded with reports of poorer HR recovery rates when using
them.  By the same token, I HAVE seen the beneficial effects of feeding fat in
those individuals who DO need more calories.

Perhaps you should check with Dr. Valentine at Oregon State about recent
evidence that fats are having a glycogen-sparing effect in
racehorses--researchers are finding that fat-fed racehorses have more left for
that sprint to the post than their carb-fed peers.  She bent my ear about it
for about an hour, and sent me some great literature on it--seemed like a lot
of pretty respectable names in the field are in on this stuff.  But since my
practical experience is limited to endurance, and since I'm just an old doc
out in the field observing horses and not spending hours sleuthing the
literature, you should likely ask Dr. Valentine about that yourself.

Heidi