Changes in heart rate variability in horses during immersion in warm springwater

Abstract

Increases in HF power indicates that the parasympathetic nervous activity in horses increases during immersion in warm springwater. Thus, immersion in warm springwater may provide a means of relaxation for horses.

Repeatability and Reliability of Heart Rate Variability in Healthy, Adult Pony Mares

“…Methodological issues reported by Stucke et al [30] also highlighted the movement of horses while measuring RR-intervals and the fact that RRinterval series recorded should be longer than the actual 5-minute tachogram that is used for HRV quantification. This longer interval series is recommended due to a relatively high incidence of first and second degree AV-blocks as well as other arrhythmias in resting horses in response to dominant vagal activity [32]. Automatic assumption of the applicability of methodology used in human or other animal studies during HRV quantification in horses may provide an explanation for the low comparability between studies.…”

Autonomic nervous system activity in purebred Arabian horses evaluated according to the low frequency and high frequency spectrum versus racing performance

“…It may be suggested that in horses that participate in races, stress responses increase progressively up to a point at which the body becomes unable to manage them. As reported by Kato et al (2003), enhanced parasympathetic system activity reflects a state of physical and mental relaxation. It exerts a trophotropic effect on the regeneration processes by inhibiting utlization of matter and energy (Baselli et al 1987;Gill 2003).…”

Measuring heart rate variability in horses to investigate the autonomic nervous system activity – Pros and cons of different methods

“…Sinus arrhythmias and atrioventricular (AV) blocks of first and second degree are considered to be physiological in resting horses, due to a dominant vagal activity (Kato et al, 2003). In short term HRV measurements, AV-blocks occur in a quarter (Oel et al, 2010) to a third (Rietmann et al, 2004a) of horses that are resting.…”

“…Rietmann et al (2004b) and Witte (2001) defined their own thresholds with human-derived algorithms (Bernasconi et al, 1998) based on counted respiratory frequency. Individual frequency band thresholds vary as a function of current physiological condition (von Borell et al, 2007) and frequency-band thresholds Kuwahara et al (1996) LF >0.01-0.07 Hz HF >0.07-0.6 Hz Hada et al (2006), Hoffmann (2008, Kato et al (2003), Kuwahara et al (1998Kuwahara et al ( , 1999, Marchant-Forde (2003), Matsuura et al (2010), Minero et al (2006), Oel et al (2010Oel et al ( , 2014, Ohmura et al (2001Ohmura et al ( , 2006aOhmura et al ( ,b, 2012a, Physick-Sheard et al (2000), Uhlendorf (2009) should not be defined without pharmacological blockade of the ANS (Marchant-Forde, 2003), because these defined frequency bands combine individual variations.…”