Re: Carbo loading products

[DreamWeaver <karen@chaton.gardnerville.nv.us>]

>Just to be the devil's advocate to Karen (sorry, Karen) in my experience the
>horses who constantly nibble hay and prefer it to grain WILL maintain weight
>just fine, and WILL keep good energy levels, without the carbo loading. 

Yep - that's true.  But I haven't ever done 1,455 on one horse in a single
season without the carbs, so don't know if he would have kept the weight on
well during all this campaigning otherwise.  I asked a lot out of my horse
- starting with Tevis in August, he completed an AERC ride every other
weekend for four months straight, including your 5 day ride, another tough
100, a 3 day ride and various one day 50's.  I can't say for sure that the
carbos helped - they certainly didn't hurt.  I think that we were only able
to pull off all those miles at the end of the season because we started out
the year slowly - with 4-6 weeks between every competition.  (but I do know
that I feel better when my blood glucose levels remain more constant, and
the horses BGL's do when I give the carbs every 2 hours) 

Now my problem....the horse has been on a vacation since Thanksging (his
last ride), and upon returning from DVE....I about fell over when I saw
Weaver.  He is FAT.  He looks about ready to foal.  He's had some light
riding (got my husband out for a couple of little rides in the last month),
and he gets plenty of exercise being turned out all the time - but his
metabolism has obviously geared itself up for all those miles and now that
he's not doing them I'm afraid of what he'll look like in another month.
He has had his grass hay cut back, and instead of LMF I've been giving him
beet pulp (just a little!) - and haven't even been giving the probiotics -
what else can I do?    

Maybe I should take him to a 50, eh?  Fire Mountain looks good, huh?  hehehehe

I'd also like to add to my last post about the carbo products - that just
because something has worked for me, doesn't mean that it will work for
you.  There is no substitute for a well conditioned horse - if your horse
is getting tired at the end of a ride then giving it 'something' isn't
going to fix that.  Just more conditioning, time - experience - that sort
of thing.  Just my $.02

Happy Trails,

Karen
in Gardnerville
& Weaver
& Rocky  :)