water weight

[Sarah Ralston <ralston@AESOP.RUTGERS.EDU>]

Michelle asked:
I wonder how the water content in the horse's gut varies when Tom's and =
Heidi's ideal feeding strategies are compared.  Is there a difference in =
what the horse is carrying in water weight?

Actually, when pinned down on it, Tom's backed off on the high grain
rations for 
endurance horses, promoting instead the carbo charge during rides, if I
read him right.
 But Hans Meyer in Germany did a study where they actually measured the
amount of water
 in the guts of horses after slaughter and had controlled the feeding
before hand (not a study that
would "fly" here in the US!). Horses on all forage rations had
significantly more water
in their intestines than those fed pelleted rations or large amounts of
grain. Dr. Meyer
commented that the gut resevoir of water would possibly be important to
horses performing 
distance type competitions.
Sarah and Fling


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