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Re: [RC] Hannibal Lector horse - Truman PrevattMaybe Tom should invite Hannibal to his contest ;-) . I am not surprised. The stomach volume of a horse is relatively small (9 to15 liters) or for his size and probably closer to the 9 for most endurance horses. Water seems to be emptied rapidly and doesn't stay in the gut. However it doesn't take much bulk to fill up the stomach. Given some estimates of 4 X expansion of beet pulp when soaked, a quart (which really doesn't weight much hence not much food value ) would swell to a gallon volume and weight about 6 to 8 pounds. I suspect that the water in soaked beet pulp stays in the stomach longer than just plain water and that probably is the problem Hannibal was having - packing around a big bulky lump in his stomach until he could get rid of it.While there are a lot of positives for beet pulp, I suspect there are some side effects also and packing around a heavy bulky lump in the stomach might might be one. Truman Randy or Cheryl Winter wrote: I had an interesting thing happen early on with the horse I am riding now. It was only his third 50 mile ride. My girlfriend and I had to plan for two out checks and packed according with wet beet pulp grains hays etc. Since we had to had a different bag for each check ( ride management rules) we decided to share a pan for both horses to use since they get along so well. My guy being a hoover vacuum and her horse being a little more dainty, he got too much of the wet beet pulp mash ( not too much grain in it), then hay and then rooted around under all the other deserted piles of hay to clean up what ever he could find. WEEELLLLL when we started off on the next loop going up hill for about 3 miles, he farted and chugged, and groaned his way up it. Picture " I can't believe I ate the whole thing" attitude. He was one uncomfortable puppy until we got to the top and had the mother of all blow out farts that he finally felt better. The next check, he was LIMITED to what he could have and scrounge for. I guess the point being on this, is that I feel the shear volume of the wet beet pulp that he took in, with not much grain in it, was just too heavy on his stomach and guts for the work load he needed to resume with. Since that incident I have been careful to monitor Hannibal Lectors approach towards heavy weight volume food......never had a horse before that would overeat at checks, but he can.....never met a meal he doesn't like. -- "The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth." Niels Bohr -- Nobel Laureate, Physics =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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