After looking at a lot of the data and manning the scales at a few
rides that's pretty normal. They tend to lose about 3% to 4% on the
first loop. The ones that do well tend to start to put it back on. The
horses that don't - don't tend to finish. There is one horse in the SE
that thends puts on weight every loop. Needless to say he does well. We
have had a few times where horses have lost 50 or so pounds on the
first loop. One time was a 16 hand mule that must have gone at 1200
pounds so the weight loss while a lot was not a huge precentage. He
gained 20 to 30 back by the end of the ride. One horse I remember -
about a 400 kg Arab lost 60 pounds on the first loop and ended up being
treated.
Having been tracking weight loss on
Super at 100s courtesy of the SERA scales (THANKS).
He will lose 25 to 35 pounds of the
first loop of a 100 (I suspect mainly in manure and
early nervous sweating). Then
he will start putting weigh back on during the ride.
Typically at the end of a 100 when
he
has done well (e.g. his BCs), he has put
most of the weight back on. At
Biltmore this year he finished within 10 to 15 pounds
of his starting weight.
