Re: RC: Re: overweight an issue? - Weight vs. lean mass

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

>  More rapid fuel depletion, probably.  But again, if there's *enough* to
fuel
>  the horse for 100 miles, does it matter whether the gas tank is now only
a
>  quarter full or half full.  The horse is still in Auburn.
>
>  Higher heart rates, slower recoveries, higher body temps, earlier
substrate
>  cascade---maybe.  If so, if its a significant difference, over a course
that
>  long and in that many horses, wouldn't you reasonably expect to see
slower
>  times to completion, higher incidence of metabolic pulls, lower
completion
>  rate that would relate to such metabolic stress.  Wasn't there.  Didn't
>  happen.
>
>  Mechanical stresses, reduced biomechanical efficiency, increased
likelihood
>  of injury---agreed on all those points.  I've pointed out several times
that
>  increased combined weight led to higher incidence of lameness.  But it
>  wasn't necessarily simply due to rider weight, you had to also look at
the
>  increased body weight of the horse himself.
>
>  Susan G
>   >>
>
>
> So, we agree on what should happen. But the observatons didn't tally.

Tally with what?  You had an expectation and it didn't happen.  It doesn't
mean the effects weren't there---probably were.  But the effects either were
balanced by other factors, or weren't significant enough to effect the
overall results of the race.



And
> don't tally with other observations in humans and horses and mice and
> bluegills.

They have 100-mile endurance races for bluegills?


So, maybe, just maybe, some of the assumptions made in the design
> and implementation of the experiment are incorrect. And maybe some of the
> conclusions drawn from the data are incorrect. And maybe the data massage
> methods have gone awry.
>
> If I were your professor, I'd be telling you "go do it again".


They did.  So we did repeat it.  For three years.  600 horses.  Still got
consistent results and conclusions.  Wrote it up.  Sent it to ICEEP, got it
crawled over by the scrutineers.  Presented it in Japan, got grilled by the
big dogs.  They couldn't find anything wrong either.  Sorry.  It wasn't what
I was expecting or looking for either, but that's what the numbers said, and
the conclusions are consistent with the results.  I'd be happy to send you
the mean values, but it would be a waste of your time trying to find
discrepancies.

Susan G