Re: [RC] New Endurance Horse Electrolyte Research - Beth Walker
Thanks everyone for the definitions.
This is really interesting, and I too would be interested to see the difference the protocol makes, too. ?This study appeared to give just two big doses during the ride, while the advice I've seen on this list is to give much smaller doses more frequently ?(as well as "no doses" as in the French team). ?
One question for Becke -- what was it about that tipped you off about whether the dose was higher or lower?
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.
