Salivary Cortisol Levels in Horses and their Riders During Three-Day-Events

Abstract

The group of 36 warm-blooded half-bred horses (18 stallions and 18 mares) and their riders (20 men and 16 women), who ended three-day-events, were selected for the study. The horses were aged 4 to 6 years, while the riders were 19 to 34-year-old. The saliva samples were collected after each phase of the competitions. The cortisol concentration was determined using an immunoassay method. The following factors were considered: type of competition, horse sex, and rider gender. In horses, the statistically important correlation was found between the results obtained for the dressage and cross-country, for the cross-country and show jumping, and for the dressage and show jumping. An analogous comparison for the riders suggests a statistically significant correlation between the data obtained for the cross-country and show jumping. Comparing the data of horses and their riders, a significant correlation coefficient was found for the cross-country group of woman and the dressage group of men. In conclusion, the salivary cortisol level in individual horses in each phase of three-day-event was found to be repetitive. Therefore, the salivary cortisol test is demonstrated to be a useful method to evaluate the horse response to each type of competition during three-day-events.

Salivary cortisol levels in horses and their junior riders during show jumping

“…This observation is not consistent with the results of other studies, in which males showed greater cortisol response to stress than females [12]. Similar results to Franco et al [12] were shown by Strzelec et al [13], where females Averages with different letters (a, b in columns, x, y in rows) differ significantly at P ≤ 0.05. Averages with different letters (a, b in columns, x, y in rows) differ significantly at P ≤ 0.05. participating in eventing had significantly lower level of cortisol concentration than males.…”

“…Significant differences were not found between cortisol concentrations before exercise in both age groups of riders. Higher level of older juniors can be influenced by the atmosphere of rivalry before competition as well as after jumping round because of a bigger emotional engagement of more experienced athletes [13].…”

Variability of Heart Rate in Primitive Horses and Their Relatives as an Indicator of Stress Level, Behavioural Conduct Towards Humans and Adaptation to Living in Wild

“…Many studies confirm the high correlation between the stress response and HR (8,9,15). This was also proven in a study where HR values were correlated together with the level of cortisol -the stress hormone (5,19,23). Therefore, on the basis of the obtained results, it is possible to correlate HR with reactions on particular behavioural interactions between horses and humans, environment and breeding procedures.…”

A Wearable System for the Evaluation of the Human-Horse Interaction: A Preliminary Study

“…A nervous mood can be transmitted from humans to horses under handling and riding conditions [9]. Voice [10][11][12], posture [13,14], facial expression [15,16], autonomic signals [17][18][19], hormones [20][21][22][23] and pheromones [24] might be used to fruitfully describe and characterize the emotional content [25]. Non-verbal communication between human and horse was also investigated in [26,27].…”

“…Finally, in [39], the link between horse and human was also investigated by studying their electroencephalograph signals (EEG), revealing a higher synchronicity in EEG waves at increasing interactions. A correlation analysis between human and equine hormone concentrations was performed in [20,21].…”