RE: [RC] electrolyte question from a newbie - Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.
>i still don't have the
answer to the question when to electrolyte. i'm not sure what the weather will
be like the day of the ride. chances are it'll be in the 60's. >the ride is on flat,
sandy trails. so do i electrolyte the night before, the morning of, at mid
point and at the end? or just the day of the ride, not the day >before? is this something
you just experiment with until you feel you got it right? (not quite
comfortable w/ that approach, afterall it's my horse's well being >at stake). what' do i do?
There
are lots of differing opinions, this is mine--- which is based on endurance research
data and a background in physiology, not from thousands of miles personally ridden
in competition. So it’s FWIW.
My
advice is to start electrolyting before you load the horse in the trailer. A
dose a few hours before you load, to hopefully encourage the horse to drink
before you leave (remember that increased plasma sodium triggers a thirst
response, which is a handy mechanism). Another dose when you reach base camp,
again to encourage some drinking at camp, especially if the water is ‘strange’
and your horse turns up his nose at new flavors.
Next
morning before the start, syringe a half dose. During the day, the optimal
amount is a tiny dose about every hour, all day long. From the data my group
gathered, the higher plasma sodium got the horses drinking earlier in the day,
maintained electrolyte levels at good, consistent levels all day (neither too
high or too low) and maintained better hydration levels than horses that either
were not elyted all day, or were only elyted ‘full’ doses at vet
checks. If you wait until later in the ride, when your horse is already
feeling the effects of dehydration and electrolyte depletion, then you’ll
be struggling to ‘repair’ the problem, rather than preventing it in
the first place.
Some
horses will stop eating, stop drinking, and/or show signs of gastric upset
after being syringed with elytes. My opinion is that the vast majority of
these problems happen when you syringe too much, not often enough. The problem
seems to resolve if you elyte with a tiny (like a quarter dose) every hour or
so. The analogy I like is salting my own food. I happen to like salt on
almost everything I eat, and the daily accumulation is maybe as much as a
tablespoon. But I specifically like it a sprinkle at a time throughout the
day--- not a tablespoon all at once! If you elyte your horse a ‘sprinkle’
at a time, I think most of the problems are resolved, and a lot of other
problems from electrolyte depletion are avoided entirely.
One
of the most interesting results we got when we collected serial blood samples
from Tevis a few years ago was that of a horse given an ounce of Perform N Win
every hour on the hour all day long. The rider/owner said the horse had never
eaten or drank better during a ride in his life, he top tenned and was in close
contention for the Haggin Cup. On paper, the horse looked like he’d
never left the barn all day. Among the rest of the horses we sampled, I got to
the point where I could tell how much or if a horse had been electrolyted by
looking at the blood work, including looking at deleterious effects on
hydration, muscle enzymes, etc. After that, you can’t convince me that
horses do just as well without electrolyting. Some horses may get away with it
without the extra help, but they don’t do “better”. If you’re
having problems, then the problem is in delivery and composition one way or
another.
