Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Interesting number--eating "three times the rate" that he normally eats.  How do you measure that?  I tend to choose horses for the sport that are ALWAYS pigs about food, so eating ravenously at a vet check is nothing unusual.  I'm not sure any of my horses would be phyxically capable of eating "three times as fast" as they normally do, because they are already quite practiced at stuffing it down.

 

I agree, too much of anything can be too much of a good thing.  (Like e-lytes??)  But I've yet to see a horse eat so fast that it worried me, with possible exception of wolfing down concentrates to the point of choking on them.  But since I don't feed dry concentrates at checks, but rather forages and soaked concentrates, this sort of problem doesn't occur.  And again, the problem with wolfing food tends to be choke, not overfilling of the stomach--it can't GET to the stomach that fast, without going through the bottleneck (pardon the pun) of swallowing.

 

Heidi

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [RC]   ELytes
From: Truman Prevatt <tprevatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, March 24, 2007 9:09 am
To: ridecamp <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

In a time when we are looking for answers - we need to put everything on

the table. It may be that as can happen too often - too much of a good 
things may not be a good thing after all. While it's a small rat sample 
- it's least a new idea one that deserves some analysis. I want my horse 
to eat but I want him to eat like he normally does. If all of a sudden 
he's shoveling food down his gullet at three times the rate he normally 
does when not in stress - I think I would be somewhat concerned.

Truman

heidi@sagehillcmk.com wrote:
> Wait-wait-wait!!!

> First off, putting food in the stomach and stretching the stomach
is 

> an important factor in STIMULATING hindgut motility, and is a
GOOD
thing!

> And no, I didn't exactly say that e-lytes in the stomach would hold


> water in the stomach--it isn't that simple. It isn't just a simple


> osmotic thing. Messing with the function of the cellular pumping


> mechanisms (one can do that by over e-lyting) can shut down the


> transport of e-lytes across the cell membranes of the upper GI


> tract--and when this happens, fluid can actually be actively


> transported back INTO the stomach, which in turn can cause rupture
if 
> that fluid isn't refluxed off. This is what happens in anterior
enteritis.

> Give me a "pig" of a horse ANY day over a picky eater--getting
enough 

> groceries into the horse is WAY more important than shoving e-lytes


> down his gullet, because if he eats, he's GETTING his e-lytes,
along 

> with energy, stimulation of his hindgut, and all sorts of other
good 
> things.

> Any time my horse has his nose buried in the feed at a vet check,
I'm 
> gonna egg him on!
> Heidi
>
>
>     H
>

-- 

“Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to 
authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us?” 
Justice William O. Douglas


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 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!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 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!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=