Re: RC: Re: thumps

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

----- Original Message -----
From: <RQuestarabians@aol.com>
To: <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>
Cc: <Ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 8:27 PM
Subject: Re: RC: Re: thumps


> Susan,
> If I may ask, could you please tell me what is wrong with the Rushcreek
> mineral? My horses seem to really like it, and have performed better than
> ever. One of my endurance mares used to each dirt. She doesn't anymore.
All
> of my horses eat a lot of  the Rushcreek minerals, so I assume they were
> lacking something and really need it? I really respect your advice, and
would
> like to know is there something wrong about it I should know and or is it
not
> necessary that I do something to keep the horse's Ca:P balanced, and why?
> Thank you for any feedback you have to offer.
> Robyn
>


I'm sure there's nothing at all wrong with the minerals themselves.  I just
personally disagree with the theory (and marketing) behind it.  LOTS of data
to support that the only mineral animals develop a specific appetite for is
sodium, as well as an inability to consistently "balance" their own diets.
Sorry, it just don't happen that way.  I can show you all kinds of range
cattle that will happily drop dead of mineral deficiency right next to a
mineral block if you don't mix it with salt to convince them to eat the
mineral along with the salt.  I've read the literature ABC provides to
support this particular claim, and it's shaky stuff IMO.  Literature that
demonstrates that fat kids and rats regulate their own body weight just
doesn't convince me about how to manage my horse's mineral profile.
Balancing a Ca:P ratio just isn't that hard, it doesn't take secret formulas
or magic inside knowledge to accomplish it.  Just a calculator and some
common sense.  If you want to supply some free-choice mineral to your horse,
and if doing so keeps him from eating dirt, that's okay with me---I just
hate you being misled into thinking that you buying a specific product from
ONLY them is making the critical difference between health and disease in
your horse.  If horses are eating alot of it, I'd be willing to bet there's
some salt or sugar or something else in there that just tastes good---which
is not the same as a critical component of life.

Those folks can earn their living any way they see fit, I've just seen
dozens and dozens of inaccuracies or half-truths in their advertising and
newsletters that made me cringe and were the cause of great hilarity at my
old university.  I don't like seeing well-meaning horse owners getting
sucked into being the victim of terrorist nutrition by getting the daylights
scared out of them---ie claims about how soybean meal is an "unbalanced"
protein (a blatant and highly misleading half truth), how fats in commercial
feeds come from roadkills and animals dead of cancer (that one was second
hand, didn't see anything about that myself), how "by-products" are bad
nutrition, how you can't trust the research out of universities because the
schools are all funded by the pet food companies (if that were true, I wish
they'd hurry up and send me my tuition refund check to me).  They talk about
their own "research" but won't tell you their methodology, results, who did
it, or where it's published in any of the peer-reviewed journals.  I know,
I've asked and so have other people.  I worked in marketing for ten years
and I know exactly how it works and it just doesn't strike me as ethical to
sell your product by making everyone else on earth besides themselves into
some kind of sinister monster out to poison your horse.  I *personally*
could not live with myself touting my own nutritional theories in that
manner, but, that's just me.  If their product is half as good as they
claim, they shouldn't have to resort to those kinds of tactics to sell it.

Undoubtedly Mr. Helfter will be along any time now waving his arms, telling
me that ABC stands for American Broadcasting Company (as he did last year)
and threatening me with a slander lawsuit at the same time as requesting I
link his company's website to mine.  (I'm still trying to figure that one
out.)  I just wish that if ABC (either the network or the supplement company
would be fine) wanted to put their money where their mouth is in promoting
the health of endurance horses, they should do something tangible like
sponsor one of the AERC national programs like VitaFlex and Sundowner do; or
financially support good, solid research programs like Barney's Pride
Project as Sporttack and many, many other vendors much smaller than ABC
have---ABC was invited to, but I hear the invitation was refused because I
was associated with the project.  Well, talk is cheap.  I'd be happy to
publicly discuss nutritional theory on RC with Mr. Helfter any time he
likes, but I'm not holding my breath.

JMO,
Susan G