In a message dated 9/19/2003 7:41:00 AM Pacific Standard Time, heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
I would add here that it is precisely this sort of scenario which makes me question the levels of e-lytes that we orally shove down some of these horses. If the horse truly "needs" this much e-lyting to continue, perhaps we are flirting with the envelope a little too much and should consider managing the horse instead by slowing down, taking a longer break, and eating more.
Thank you for this, Heidi, it seems like no one ever stops to think, "perhaps this particular horse has a predisposition that makes him or her imminently unsuitable metabolically for this sport. Seems to me that if it takes so much work and theorizing and intervention to keep a horse even remotely comfortable for competition, perhaps another hors should be chosen for the sport. Some temperaments do not lend themselves well to endurance - some physical issues can and should eliminate a horse as well for his own good.
We don't e-lyte heavily at rides, in fact, barely more than we do at home, and depending upon current working and weather conditions. Rather, we keep a healthy - and I mean healthy - level of daily e-lytes available to then as they work, and rarely force them down their throats, even - or especially - at a ride. In addition to what you had said, in easily understood laymen's terms, force-feeding e-lytes only requires that the horse's gut - just like the athletes we have ahd in met distress in the lab - now must draw fluids from the extremities to process through the additional load of e-lytes - not a good thing for an athlete already depleted of e-lytes in the muscle mass. (You should see those bulky football players - but even the soccer players and basketball players suffered teheeffects of e-lyte overload.
If that much interventionis needed - something else needs to be addressed - or changed.
