Re: RC: Re: ti's "article"

["Susan Evans Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

><< and once a muscle cell has
> been totally catabolized, it aint coming back no matter what you do. >>
>
>OK Susan & Tom, for us dummys out here, are you saying that if a horse gets
so
>lean that it must burn muscle for energy, that if you put weight back on
the
>horse, the muscle will not be rebuilt?

That occurs under really extreme circumstances.  A horse that's just gotten
lean is going to rebuild the tissue.  A horse that has been starved to
complete emaciation, to a large part, will not be able to rebuild to his
former condition.  Sarah, correct me if I'm wrong here?


>
>If I'm following your discussion correctly, it sounds like a little bit of
fat
>is good on the horse to ensure it won't burn up muscle for fuel on a
>competition.

The research very strongly indicates that this is true, although it's not
quite so much just an extra storage tank during the competition---it's also
an indication that you're starting competition with a relatively full gas
tank, and haven't been dipping into emergency rations during conditioning
(ie, burning lean muscle mass in lieu of fat stores).

>
>I have noticed in my experience that the horses sometimes look like they
drop
>a noticeable amount of weight after a competition, especially in the summer
>(even tho my horses usually vet out with almost all A's & don't seem to be
>terribly dehydated). Fortunately, my easy keepers have had the weight to
lose!

Alot of that is going to be gut fill and dehydration, which they can replace
within a day or so.  Also part of that is true weight loss---I think I
worked out the numbers once that it would take an entire 50-lb bag of corn
to replace the average calories expended during an average completion-only
100-mile ride with a featherweight rider.  You can't supply that many
calories during the race itself, so the majority of that energy is coming
from on-board stores of both glycogen and adipose tissue.


Susan G



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