Yes please! I would appreciate a list of papers.
I would also like to have a read of the original you have quoted from, if
you could tell me the source.
The problem we always seem to have is the scarcity of research done on
endurance horses specifically, and the complications that may arise from
attempting to relate a finding in one species to another. My reading has
suggested that human "high fat" diets usually contain considerably more fat
than do "high fat" horse diets; the fat diets fed to study exercise in rats
also contain huge amounts of fat, so the results may not be immediately
applicable. I also came across an interesting and unreferenced snippet in a
cycling magazine the other day that warned of the dangers of accepting the
findings of exercise research done on men as valid for women - this article
seemed to suggest that women were better able to use fats as an endurance
fuel than men. Tom, you seem to have access to a better data base than I -
any chance of looking to see if this information has any substance? (OK, I
just want an excuse to be "bigger" than the male cyclists!).
The information I remembered about fat as a cooler fuel was, I think,
largely personal comment on another discussion list from some nutritionists,
but I also came across some published work (admittedly 10 years old) that
indicated a lower heart rate after intense exercise for horses on a "high
fat" diet.
Pagan, J.D., Essen-Gustavsson, B., Lindholm, A and Thornton, J.R. (1987).
The effect of dietary energy source on exercise performance in Standardbred
horses. in Gillespie, J.R. and Robinson, N.E. (eds). Equine Exercise
Physiology 2. ICEEP Publications, Davis, CA. pp686-700.
In this work, the high fat diet contained 18.2% crude fat, where the
Control diet contained 3.1% fat. Starch in the high fat diet was 30.8%,
while in the Control diet it was 39.9%. There was also a high protein group.
After a step-wise exercise test, "a comparison of heart rates at all
speeds...showed that when the horses were fed the control diet, their heart
rates were significantly (P<0.05) higher than when either the high protein
or high fat diets were fed".
No comments given on endurance 'ability' with each diet.
On another list, there was a suggestion that we could combine various case
studies etc if we were careful to all do the same things, and go from many
individual n=1 to a much larger, and therefore statistically valid sample
size. With this forum here, there is also a similar potential. Anyone game
to nut out how we could coordinate this?
Anne
Western Australia