Re: Horse too fast!!

[Tivers@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/18/99 8:55:30 PM Pacific Standard Time, CMKSAGEHIL
writes:

<< Golly, then they must not be very stressed by endurance.  Most of the
horses I see (and virtually ALL of the really successful ones) want to eat,
eat, eat at the checks. >>

Great! Somebody's doing a good job.

> If they don't, it is usually because there is something medically wrong.
Food of choice, if available, is grass, at least for many of them.  All of my
own guys eat non-stop from the time they unload in camp until they leave, only
taking time out for the actual travel down the trail.  They think endurance
rides are a food fest!>

The sign of very healthy, very fit horses.

>  In addition to vetting several thousand endurance horses, I have personally
campaigned horses on both ends of the food tolerance spectrum--had one mare
who could not tolerate sweet feeds AT ALL (she would tie up) and who ran on
(and stayed in good weight on) nothing but grass hay and about 2 pounds of
rolled barley a day (she was PNER Reserve Champion to RT Muffin, not a bad
horse by which to be beaten, ran 18 rides that year, Top Tenned 17 of 'em, was
in 9 races for the finish in which she won the race for her placing 8
times--is that enough consistent energy at the end?  For a 19-year-old
"liberated" broodmare?  And pregnant to boot?).  

Good info--high density carbs and FFAs.

>On the other end of the spectrum, I have one now that could likely thrive on
anything from table sugar to chicken feathers, and literally will eat
everything in sight if I don't drag him away from it.  Susan is right,
Tom--you need to get away from the racetrack and come see for yourself how
these horses work.  Get one of your own, and campaign him for a few years. >

B-b-b-but, will my computer/recliner fit on the back of an Arab? 

> BTW, Tom, some of us were playing with carbs back in the early days (whether
it's honey, or Karo syrup, or your paste, simple carbs is simple carbs) and
those of us that stuck around found out that our horses did better on real
foods, which of course contain some carbs, but also stuff like f-f-f-fiber
(that becomes those awful f-f-f-f-free f-f-f-f-fatty acids), f-f-f-f-fat, and
other scary nutrients like that.>

Long chained corn sugars work better than straight sugar--too much of a spike
in blood glucose. We had to move ours from about a 600 molecular weight to
1200 before we started getting consistent results.

> Just my clinical impression (well, mine and that of a lot of other long-time
ride vets with inquiring minds), but the carb horses sometimes remind me of
the little kids that have their candy bar before dinner and spoil their
appetites, and don't want to eat their veggies.<

But then burn up the living room carpet until you're nuts.

>  Then they're hungry again before dinner.  No surprise, since simple carbs
are rapidly absorbed, and a rise in blood glucose tends to suppress appetite.>

Yep. Once you start supplementing during a ride, you have to continue till the
end of you want 100% horse all the way. 

>  Just occurred to me, Tom, would those stressed horses that aren't happy
eaters be on high carbs???>

Let's not get confused. We'll talking about carbohydrate supplementation in
amounts some have said can have no beneficial effect at all. We're not
stuffing the animal with carbohydrate--although the stressed-out horse is very
likely to be suffering from fuel, water and electrolyte depletion--and the
non-eater is probably already getting muscle sore.

ti
 
 Heidi   >>