Performance parameters and post exercise heart rate recovery in Warmblood sports horses of different performance levels

Bitschnau, Caroline; Wiestner, Thomas; Trachsel, Dagmar S.; Auer, Jörg A; Weishaupt, Michael A

doi:10.1111/j.2042-3306.2010.00260.x

Cited by 42 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In contrast, for the cross-country phase we found that heart rates had decreased by about 53% of HR peak values 180 seconds after the completion of the course and that the mean regression line was characterised by high correlation (r2= 0.92). Similar findings were obtained by Bitschnau et al (2010) in warmblood horses during a treadmill test, in which a post exercise decrease in heart rate to 50% of the maximal HR in the first 3 minutes was recorded. Thus, HRR is an appropriate parameter for evaluating workload after high-intensity, but not low-intensity, exercise and may represent a useful marker of fitness level, ability and soundness; however, the usefulness of this parameter should not be overestimated for the evaluation of workload following low-intensity exercise, when HR recovery may be influenced by other factors.…”

Section: Competition Phasessupporting

confidence: 67%

Estimation of the workload in horses during an eventing competition

Valle

Odore

Zanatta

et al. 2013

CEP

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The aim of this study was to evaluate workload using suitable parameters related to the physical effort exerted by horses involved in eventing competitions in order to describe the workload intensity and energy demands placed upon such horses. Heart rate (HR), running speed (S), distance covered (D) and blood lactate (Lact) concentrations were measured in horses competing at either the intermediate level (IL) or advanced level (AL) in order to identify workload differences between experience class. Ten warmblood horses were monitored during an official two-day eventing competition; mean HR (HRmean), maximum HR (HRmax), mean speed (Smean, m/min), max speed (Smax, m/min) and performance duration (D, min) were assessed during the warm-up (WU) and competition (C) phases of each eventing test (dressage, show jumping, cross country). To calculate heart rate recovery (HRR), HR data were collected within the first 3 minutes following the completion of each of the 3 competition phases. Energy expenditure (EE) was estimated using the HR/VO2 relationship. Differences between the groups (AL vs. IL) in HRmean, HRmax, %HRmean, %HR peak (HR expressed as a percentage of the maximum HR peak obtained during a fast gallop training session), S, and D were assessed using one-tailed unpaired t-tests for both WU and C phases; the relationship between HR and S was also determined for WU and C phases using one-tailed Person's correlations. The relationship between HR decrease during the first 3 minutes following competition phase completion and recovery time was investigated by multiple nonlinear curve estimation procedures. The results reveal the cross country test to be the most demanding of the eventing competition, requiring significantly greater levels of muscular and energetic effort, in terms of Lact production and EE, with higher values recorded in the AL horses compared to IL horses. The data also show that riders need to optimise WU duration and quality in accordance with their competition category. The calculation of HRR is also shown to be an appropriate approach for gauging workload after high-intensity exercise, but not after low-intensity exercise since HRR may be influenced by external factors, like how excited a horse is.

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Section: Competition Phasessupporting

confidence: 67%

Estimation of the workload in horses during an eventing competition

Valle

Odore

Zanatta

et al. 2013

CEP

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“…Previous studies highlighted either HR (Von Borell et al, 2007;Bitschnau et al, 2010) or eye temperature (Hall et al, 2011;McGreevy et al, 2012;Valera et al, 2012) as good indicators of stress in horses. Specifically, IRT has been used to assess acute stress in the elk during velvet antler removal (Cook et al, 2006) and in calves during disbudding (Stewart et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using eye temperature and heart rate for stress assessment in young horses competing in jumping competitions and its possible influence on sport performance

Bartolomé

Sánchez

Molina

et al. 2013

Animal

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The aims of this study were, first, to evaluate eye temperature (ET) with infrared thermography and heart rate (HR) to measure stress in horses during show jumping competitions and their relationship with competition results, and second, to evaluate the influence of different extrinsic and intrinsic factors of the horse on the stress measurements analysed. One hundred and seventy-three Spanish Sport Horses were analysed for ET and HR, and these measurements were taken 3 h before the competition, just after and 3 h after it. Two interval measurements were also assessed for each parameter. Positive significant correlations were found between ET and HR, measured before (r = 0.23), just after competition (r = 0.28) and for the later interval (r = 0.26), whereas negative correlations with competition results were found only for ET when measured just after competing (r =− 0.25). Two intrinsic factors (genetic line and age) and no extrinsic factors showed significant differences for ET, whereas one intrinsic factor (age) and two extrinsic factors (journey duration and number of training hours) showed significant differences for HR. The marginal means showed significantly higher ET values for the Anglo-Arab genetic line and for 5-year-old animals. HR values were significantly higher for 4-year-old animals, for horses which had travelled 4 to 6 h and for horses that had 3 to 6 h of daily training. This study suggests that, although ET and HR seemed to share a similar physiological basis, the factors that most influenced each parameter were different. Finally, ET seems to be a suitable tool for assessing stress during show jumping competitions in horses.

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“…In the present study, event horses and ponies were, according to the above protocol, divided into average or good performers (AP or GP, respectively) depending on whether the individual V LA4 and HR recovery was above or below the median V LA4 and HR recovery values of SET-I [4,10]. …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A prospective study on a cohort of horses and ponies selected for participation in the European Eventing Championship: reasons for withdrawal and predictive value of fitness tests

Munsters

Broek

Welling³

et al. 2013

BMC Vet Res

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BackgroundEventing is generally recognized as a challenging equestrian discipline and wastage figures for this discipline are relatively high. There is a need for information that provides insight into the causes of wastage and withdrawal from competition, for animal welfare and economic reasons. The aim of the present investigation was to conduct a prospective study following the entire national selection of event horses (n = 20) and ponies (n = 9) in the Netherlands that prepared for the European Championship in 2010 (ponies) and 2011 (horses), noting causes of withdrawal and monitoring fitness using standardized exercise tests (SETs), with heart rate (HR; beats/min), speed (V; m/s) and plasma lactate concentrations (LA; mmol/L) as measured parameters.ResultsIn SET-I, performed at the beginning of the season, horses (n = 17) had a mean VLA4 (V at LA 4 mmol/L) of 10.3 ± 0.4 m/s with a mean V200 (V at 200 beats/min) of 11.4 ± 0.8 m/s and ponies (n = 9) a mean VLA4 of 7.8 ± 0.9 m/s and V200 of 9.6 ± 0.7 m/s. Before SET-II, performed six weeks before the European Championship, 16/20 horses and 6/9 ponies were withdrawn. The most common reason for withdrawal was locomotor injury (9/16 horses, 4/6 ponies; P < 0.001 and P = 0.011, respectively). Other reasons included an animal ‘not meeting the competition criteria’ (4/16 horses, 2/6 ponies) and being sold (3/16 horses). Animals were divided on the basis of VLA4 and recovery-HR during SET-I into good and average performers. Average performers were significantly more likely to be injured (50.0%) than good performers (0%, P = 0.05). In a subpopulation of ten horses, in which all condition training sessions were evaluated for HR and speed, HRpeak was significantly lower in horses that stayed sound (186 ± 9 beats/min) compared with horses withdrawn from training and competition because of injury (201 ± 5 beats/min; P = 0.016).ConclusionsOf the national selection, 45% of all animals were unavailable for the European Championship because of locomotor injuries. Field tests were useful in assessing the potential injury risk, as individuals with better fitness indices (good performers) were less likely to become injured than average performers. Furthermore, monitoring of training sessions showed predictive value for future injuries, as horses withdrawn because of injury later on showed already higher peak HRs during condition training than horses that stayed sound. Therefore the increase in peak HR seemed to precede visible lameness in a horse.

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Performance parameters and post exercise heart rate recovery in Warmblood sports horses of different performance levels

Abstract: SummaryReasons for performing study: Standardised exercise tests are used for fitness evaluation of sports horses.

Cited by 42 publications

References 21 publications

Estimation of the workload in horses during an eventing competition

Estimation of the workload in horses during an eventing competition

Using eye temperature and heart rate for stress assessment in young horses competing in jumping competitions and its possible influence on sport performance

A prospective study on a cohort of horses and ponies selected for participation in the European Eventing Championship: reasons for withdrawal and predictive value of fitness tests

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