Featured Article (June 2002)

2002 Middleburg Research Endurance Ride Virginia Tech MARE Center

Forty enthusiasts had the privilege of riding on horseback through some of the most glorious countryside in Virginia on April 14, 2002. The occasion was the Second Middleburg Research Ride, a 50-mile endurance ride dedicated to research primarily intended to improve the performance and welfare of the endurance horse. The Ride 2002 was a function of Virginia Tech's Middleburg Agricultural Research and Extension Center and was dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Alice DuPont Mills, an ardent conservationist who helped gain easements for much of the beautiful land that participants had the privilege of traversing on horseback.

The Ride 2002 began and finished at the MARE Center and extended over three loops on High Acre Ridge of the Bull Run Mountains. The top ten rider and horse pairs were as follows: 1) Stagg Newman and Jayel Super, 2) Adrienne Hewitt and Fair Chance, 3) Lynne Gilbert and G.M. Chagall, 4) John Proudman and CR Silver Dancer, 5) Julie Bullock and AM Mister Gipsy, 6) Mary Ann Wates and Kaledoscope, 7) Joan Borger and Avril Suivante, 8) Ellen Tully and Ramegwa Drubin, 9) Miriam Anver and Tams of Lil Clipper, and 10) Becky Supinger and Baskin Bacardi. The winner covered the 50-miles in approximately 6 hours and 30 minutes.
The Awards Ceremony included not only recognition of the top ten riders, but also some special awards. One of note was to the Youngest Rider to complete the ride, Vincent Coppola, age 11. Others included the Best Horsemanship, to Katherine Jonkers, who made the difficult decision not to start her slightly unsound horse. Another award for the First Rider to Fall Off, was presented to… (We won't embarrass that person twice!)

The Ride 2001 is yielding spectacular results, which will be presented this year at the American Association of Veterinary Nutritionists conference, Dallas TX; the American Society of Animal Science meeting, Montreal, Quebec, and the International Conference on Equine Exercise Physiology, Lexington, KY.

In the Ride 2001, speed correlated with higher blood oxygen content and red blood cells, which should help the horse burn fuel to generate power for running. Speed also correlated with less acidity, which is a sign of burning more fat and less glucose. Burning fat should help the endurance horse, because acidity represents energetic inefficiency. These results prompted the testing of the MARE Center's multi-fiber, high fat feed in the Ride 2002. The riders were supplied with a 6-week supply of feed-a multi-fiber high fat feed and a copy of a leading high-fat, sweet feed formulated for endurance horses, as a comparison.
Another result from last year turned so strongly against the tide that it was reinvestigated in the Ride 2002. Horses using the MARE Center formulated potassium-free electrolyte mixture during the Ride 2001 had lower plasma potassium concentration towards the end of the ride. This should reduce the neuromuscular excitability that is the cause of muscle twitches or loss of tone, changes in gut motility, and abnormal heart rhythms. The potassium-free group also had less acidity throughout the ride. This unexpected finding could be important, because acidity is a major factor in fatigue. To retest the MARE Center formulated electrolytes, the Ride 2002 examined the same potassium-free electrolyte mixture, used as before during the running of the ride. In addition, a potassium-replacement