Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Fat/Dietary Questions

> Also, Any ideas on antioxidants and how those might help, not help, and if
> they would help, how best to add those to the diet???

Antioxidants don't help performance directly, but they are very helpful in
preventing inflammation and aging of the body tissues, and thus help prolong
the horse's soundness and longevity (which is even better in my book).
Oxidation is a normal part of metabolism and exercising, but it can also be
due to rancid feeds, toxins, etc, which is why you want to be fanatical
about only feeding fresh feeds and fat sources.

Okay, so where to get a good source of antioxidants.  Hands down, there is
NO better way to provide the whole gamut of antioxidants than through good,
fresh green grass.  Magical stuff.  If you're not lucky enough to have
access to pasture on a regular basis, then it's absolutely worth the time
and effort to plan your training route and stop along the trail whenever
green stuff is available and let your guy graze for fifteen minutes or so,
as often as possible.  Nope, you don't get the same benefits from hay, no
matter how good and green the hay is.  Lots of fresh carrots on a regular
basis are also a really great source of carotene, the precursor to vitamin A
(a very potent antioxidant), though short on other antioidants like E, etc.

If you absolutely have to feed antioxidants from a bucket, then Vita Flex
has a product called Winter Companion that I think is pretty good.  Nice
range of As and Es, although NONE of the synthetic forms of vitamin A are as
beneficial as carotene from a fresh veggie source (back to those carrots and
grazing again).  You can also get vitamin E just by throwing a couple of the
400 IU gelcaps from WalMart into the mash.  Rice bran is also a good source
of vitamin E.

Vitamin C has a useful role as an antioxidant, but research by Ralston has
demonstrated there's no benefit except during times of stress (like during
ride weekend or illness) and if fed chronically, just reduces the amount of
vitamin C produced by the liver.  So I don't like feeding it on a regular
basis, although I'm not above handing out apples.  There's vitamin C in
fresh grass again as well.

You also want to make sure the dietary selenium levels are correct for your
area.  Hays in So Cal are generally adequate in selenium, but if you see
some muscle soreness or tightness, you might want to have it checked via
serum chemistry.  Not an absolute barometer, but fairly useful for most
purposes.

There are lots of fancy-shmancy bioflavenoids, isoflavenoids, leukopenes,
stuff like that that you can spend a billion dollars for at the health food
store or some au natural website somewhere.  No one knows the exact levels
that are adequate or optimally beneficial for endurance horses (or any other
species), and again, you're doing better just to go find some green grass
and carrots, which are stuffed full of all kinds of trendy things GNC and
the Whole Horse Journal will be getting all exalted about next year.

Hope this was useful, Audrey.  Have fun with Fudge and say hi to your mom.
:-))

Susan G



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