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| Author |
Message |
    
Angela Shadbolt (Angelas)
| | Posted on Tuesday, Apr 9, 2002 - 1:18 pm: |   |
I can find many discussions on calming drugs but none on anything to increase energy. I am training a barrel racing horse, she is patterned great and bred to run but just doesn't seem to have any energy. Before i give up on her I would like to find anything that will boos her energy level, drugs or feed. Any suggestions? |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Wednesday, Apr 10, 2002 - 4:47 am: | |
Probably the most important long term factor is the horses overall condition Angela, using the scale in the article Care for Horses: Disease Prevention and Health Care: Weight, Condition, and Eventual Height Estimation, what is your horse's condition?
Probably the most important short term factor is the amount of exercise the horse has had just prior to the run: is the horse pastured most of the time or do you keep him in the stall a lot?
DrO |
Angela Shadbolt (Angelas)
| | Posted on Wednesday, Apr 10, 2002 - 10:40 am: | |
The horse is always pastured with plenty of space and many other horses except the past month she has been in a lot with other horses for calving season. She is rode almost everyday and is in good shape. She has been this way since I bought her as a three year old. SHe is 5 this July.
I was wondering what you thought about creatine. She could add some muscle mass, but she is naturally a tall slender horse (graddaughter of Dash for Cash). What are the side effects and is creatine even useful. I know some people that use it and swear by it, buy havn't heard much about the effects for horses. |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Thursday, Apr 11, 2002 - 5:27 am: | |
Creatine is a often discussed subject, run a search on the term Angela and I believe you will get most your questions answered. You could probably increase your horses energy levels at competitions by stalling the horse for a day or two prior to the race. I still would be interested where the horses condition is on the scale referenced above.
DrO |
Angela Shadbolt (Angelas)
| | Posted on Wednesday, Apr 17, 2002 - 3:32 pm: | |
THe mare is in condition 4 or 5 by my judgement after reading the article. She isn't obese by any standard and her ribs are not showing. She seems to be in good condition. I also ran many searches on creatine and only found information on humans and to buy for your horse. No studies or bad side effects for horses. THe human studies sounded good though and I know someone who uses the liquid sublingual form for herself and likes the results. I know horses are different than we are but will it work for them??? |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Friday, Apr 19, 2002 - 6:10 am: | |
Right now we think the information derived form human studies is really the only scientific information we have Angela. It is the only specie where creatine supplementations effect has been well studied. Since some of the conversations there has been a study of Standardbreds which found the same results that has been seen in most of the human studies: no effect.
OK if you are serious about this you will experiment with the management and forget pie-in-the-sky drugs. If your horses condition is on the 4 side of 5 that is fine, a 4 is thinner than most of the winning barrel racers I have seen. But to find what your horses ideal running weight is takes experimentation, you find a slight increase in condition results in a more energetic horse.
There are several things you can do immediately to increase the energy level the day of the race. I would increase the grain starting about 3 days before the race. Experiment with the times and amounts but 3 days and about a 25% per feeding might be right to start.
At the same time decrease the time on the pasture signifcantly. Again you will have to experiment but you if you are really leaving him out 24/7, consider 6 hours a day turn out the 3 days before the race. This should be enough time to get the needed forage. After the race and during training you can return to the regular care though training is the time to experiment with different regimens to see what works best.
DrO |
