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RE: [RC] Metabolics of Endurance Horses - heidiHeidi, What is the difference in the muscle mass. I know there are two different muscle types- at least in humans: fast twitch muscle and slow twitch muscle. The fast twitch is the white meat or sprint type muscle on our turkeys and the slow twitch is the darker turkey meat that is the endurance type muscle. Kinda crude way of differentiating, but effective. Do arabians just have higher ratios of the slow twitch muscle? There are actually three fiber types--fast-twitch, slow-twitch, and intermediate. The ratio of the three is something you are born with. The fast-twitch are indeed the sprint muscles (your "white meat") and the slow-twitch are the aerobic ones (the "dark meat"). The intermediate fibers are "recruitable"--ie they have the potential to become either fast or slow twitch, depending on how the horse is conditioned. And yes, Arabians as a breed tend to have much higher percentages of slow twitch fibers, whereas horses such as QHs have much higher percentages of fast twitch fibers. You will also see variations between individuals within a breed. The number of intermediate fibers the horse has limits how much you can influence him more toward aerobic activities or toward anaerobic activities by conditioning him toward one or the other. Heidi ============================================================ We are talking about all the tools we can use to keep our horses safe and alive at the rides. Training/conditioning is one of the best tools available. It makes us better horseman and women, it benefits our horses and could quite possibly be the key to preventing most crashes. ~ Lisa Salas - The Odd Farm ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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