Re: [RC] New Endurance Horse Electrolyte Research - BeckeG
It was my horses that participated in this study. One of the
take homes from the study was that these were not elite endurance
horses. Dr. Schott was right, they weren't. I took three juniors
with me and my goal was to get the juniors though. Our goal was to do it
in about 5 hours. In the first test, one of the juniors had tummy problems
and we stopped on the trail several times to let her throw up. My horse
has done a sub 10 hour hundred but she was 17 during this race and I wasn't
pushing her. As a matter of fact, she was retired from 50 milers at the
end of 2006.
Also, I usually up the salt a few days before a ride and in this case we
were not allowed to do that.
It was really funny in that on the second ride, I mentioned to one of the
vet students that I knew they had used less elytes this time than last. He
was surprised I could tell. Anyway, when I figured this out and
it was an August ride, I rode my horse accordingly. So the study may have
been slightly slanted. I will call that human error in that I was not supposed
to figure this out.
They were supposed to send me the results but I never got them so it is
interesting to see what they deduced. I usually give elytes but
never in those high a dosage. My horse were give elytes only twice during
the ride and we were out there 7.5 hours (ride time 5 hours) I give elytes
more frequently. I suggested this as a study but they said that their
money was limited. I sure would like to see what results that would
produce.
All in all it was a fun study to participate in. I had my own vet, my
own personal vet student to attend to us. They even got attached to the
horses they were working with. If they asked for volunteers again, I would do it
in a minute! I learned a lot and the vets were watching so closely that I
knew no horse would be hurt.
