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Re: [RC] for those who use electrolytes...help those newbies - Truman PrevattJonni wrote:----- Original Message ----- From: "Truman Prevatt" >>> Several years ago there was a series of articlesI'll summarize what I heard. Some may also be from discussions with Art King. The horse evolved eating feed stuffs with high levels of potassium - grass. Because of that they have developed - those that survived - the ability to dump potassium through the kidney. This is different from humans who developed on a higher sodium diet and that's an important difference when comparing human electrolytes with that required for horses. What was discussed was how the electrolytes work in the body at the cellular level and how they are distributed inside/outside the cell. Sodium carries the" message" for the cells to fire. Before the cell fires a large percentage of the ions inside the cell is potassium. Potassium sets the resting threshold potential for cells to fire. After the cells fire there is a large percentage of sodium ions inside the cell. There is a "pump" on each cell that runs off of ATP (energy) that pumps the sodium and the potassium back in. With out a proper balance on sodium and potassium the cells will not function properly. The sodium also plays a role in maintaining the fluid balance in the body which is also related to the blood pressure. The chloride ions provide electrical neutrality. When the body senses a critical loss of sodium it has built in mechanism (the hormone aldosterone) for the kidney to reabsorb sodium ions. This comes at a cost since to maintain electrical neutrality the kidney dumps another positively charged ion - potassium. This in turn impact the sodium/potassium balance required for proper functioning of the cells. Aldosterone is a hormone that is also released by stress - hence during stress the kidney is maintaining sodium at the expense of potassium. Now what does that mean. 1. Horses sweat about the same concentration of electrolytes as in the plasma. Horses have no way or recapturing the ions from their sweat so they lose a lot of electrolytes. Done believe it taste the sweat of a horse. 2. Stress is bad. Maybe horses don't physically acclimate (I've never heard of such of a process) to not needing as many electrolytes it is most likely that their stress levels are reduced at a ride instead. Stress hormones would also explain why horses lose more at the beginning of ride when the stress is the highest. 3. The impact of stress related hormones takes a couple of days to subside so some electrolyte supplementation is necessary for a day a two after the ride. 4. The body is designed to dump excess electrolytes and arrive at the proper balance. The number I have heard by several people is two hours. The electrolytes given two hours ago if not needed are gone. The body does not store electrolytes. 5. If you ride 20 miles before you electrolyte you will have a 20 mile imbalance. If you only ride 10 before you electrolyte you will only have a 10 mile imbalance. Imbalance is not good and massive doses that might be required to correct a 20 mile imbalance may not be good - so small doses often rather than large doses not so often. 6. Someone I think Angie asked about horses, ulcers and electrolytes. The comments were the are absorber rapidly and in small doses should not be a problem The speaker who is a professor in medical school went on to say in humans ulcers are quite common - in fact about half to two thirds of us are walking around with one but it is only a clinical problem in a small proportion. She didn't see why that was not true in horses so it's not so much the fact that there is an ulcer but the impact of the ulcer. Again small doses often is the better way to go. That in a nut shell is what I remember. Myself I electrolyte often. I will not go over 15 miles - without giving electrolytes. I do not give a full does at one time. On the trail I give a half a dose. In check I have some P&F in the feed (about half a dose)- my horses will gladly eat feed with P&F in it. They are getting electrolytes all during the hold. Then when I go back out I give the other half dose when I go out on trail. I start the day before the horses climb on the trailer with some in the feed. The get some in the feed till they start. Depending on the ride and weather I will preload or not before I start. They get electrolytes in the feed till I get home and then a little in the feed once a day when I get home. I will electrolyte after a long hard training ride in hot weather. I did learn that my old mare did not require as much electrolytes as the Jbird. If I am riding in the west I only give about a half to 2/3'rds the amount I give in the east. I still give them as often - just not as much when I give them. If I give the same amount as I give in the east, my horse will sure pee a lot on the trail which is natures way of balancing the system. As far as electrolyting a dehydrated horse. If my horse is too dehydrated to be given electrolytes - he/she is too dehydrated to continue so for me it's pretty much a moot point. However, a dehydrated horse can develop an electrolyte deficiency by drinking a lot of water without being given small doses of electrolytes during the rehydration process. -- "Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true." - Bertrand Russell =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. 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