Re: RC: adjusting to altitude

[Kirsten Foruria <kirsten@vermilion.reno.nv.us>]

Having had experience at altitude myself (and my husband regularly works at 13,000
to 17,000 feet), I can tell you that at least in humans (I am assuming there are
parallels for horses).... the best plan is two fold.  First, try to increase
altitude incrementally.  For example, if you're going to go from sea level to
10,000 feet.... go to 5,000 feet and hang out for a day or two before heading on
to the 10,000 foot mark.  The body needs a little bit of time to be kicked into
manufacturing more red blood cells and this helps make the transition less sudden
and decreases some of the effects (like light headedness, headache, loss of
appetite).  As far as actually acclimatizing, I'm not sure that's really possible
with the elevation changes you are talking about (8,000 to 10,000 foot gain).
There is certainly a point of diminishing returns if the human (or animal) cannot
maintain a normal flow of oxygen to organs and tissues.  For example, despite the
fact that my husband is in excellent health and physical condition, simply
existing at 13,000 plus feet is quite an effort and it really drags him down (and
we *live* at 5,000 feet). Over a typical four week stint, he'll lose about 8
pounds (he normally weighs about 160) and he'll get very tired. Getting a good
night's sleep is difficult as during REM sleep, breathing slows, the brain gets
less oxygen and when the oxygen intake gets low enough the little alarm bells go
off that wake you up. IOW, you never really get into REM sleep. My point is that
with an elevation gain of 8,000 to 10,000 feet... there really is no such thing as
realistically acclimatizing unless you plan to live there for a while (read:
months or years). Two weeks may just turn out to be two weeks of extra physical
stress.  So, my uneducated... but somewhat experienced opinion says to go up in
increments and spend enough time at the new elevation to jump start production of
RBCs (I'm guessing a few days).  But, don't spend too much time there in advance
as the physical effort over a longer period will actually tend to increase fatigue
and therefore impact performance. Two weeks is probably fine.  I doubt there would
be any benefit beyond that unless you intend to stay for months.

You didn't mention what you were planning to do at those elevations, I hope not
particularly strenuous things.  I personally nearly got in big trouble by
overdoing the physical thing at altitude. It's VERY deceptive and can be really
dangerous for humans *and* animals. It's also my experience that horses in
particular have quite a bit of difficulty functioning at elevations greater than
about 10,000 or 12,000 feet (we always used exclusively burros and mules above
that).  I would be concerned about asking for much additional exertion at those
elevations. I have regularly taken horses to push cattle near 10,000 feet, but we
were pretty slow and careful and our horses were living at 6,000 feet, not sea
level. Hopefully some of the vets here will have more concrete information than I.
Just take it easy whatever you decide to do... both you and the horses.

Kirsten

> capape@worldnet.att.net writes:
>
> << My question is: what should we do for our horses going from 600 feet
> elevation to 8-10,000 feet elevation?  Actually, one horse will be coming from
> sea level.  Sometime I remember hearing that you needed to get there either 2
> weeks before the ride or the day before the ride so the horses could
> acclimatize.  >>

--
Kirsten (Price) Foruria
Vermilion Desert Ranch
Reno, Nevada



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