Environmental stress and 3‐day eventing: effects of altitude

Abstract

SummaryThree-day event horses are subject to various external environmental stresses including changes in ambient temperature, humidity, altitude, and test severity. Considerable research on the adverse effects of increased heat and humidity preceded the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia USA, but no research has been done previously on the effects of altitude on 3-day eventing. Physical and venous blood gas data were collected on horses (n = 24) competing in the High Prairie Preliminary (CCN*) and Intermediate (CCN**) 3-day events and Preliminary Horse Wals in Parker, Colorado (1900 m above sea level). Despite the increased altitude, only post exercise rectal temperature and pH were higher (P<O.O5) whereas heart rate (HR), [K+], and ionised calcium (iCa++) were lower (Pc0.05) in 3-day event horses compared to horse trial horses. [HCO,-1, BE, and "a+]) were not different between groups (P>O.O5). When these preliminary horse trial horses in Colorado were compared to those previously studied at preliminary horse trials at sea level in Arizona, post exercise HR and RR were higher (Pc0.05) and pH, PcoZ, [~c o~] , [HCO, BE and [ICa++] were lower (P<O.O5) at altitude. These data show that increased altitude (1900 m above sea level) was more stressful for 3-day event horses, but did not result in the severe physiological changes and inability to complete prescribed exercise tests seen in previous studies with increased heat and humidity. It is clear from these and previous data that increased heat and humidity are the more important environmental stressors in 3-day eventing.

The workload and plasma ion concentration in a training match session of high‐goal (elite) polo ponies

“…In comparing the effort exerted by horses in this training session of elite polo with other equestrian modalities and pointing out the changes in some variable such as pH, PCO 2 , lactate and glycaemia, similarities are noted with 3‐day event horses (Foreman et al . 1999) and racehorses (Davie and Evans 2000; Mukai et al .…”

Acid‐base imbalances during a 120 km endurance race compared by traditional and simplified strong ion difference methods

“…Finally, point‐of‐care blood analysers may not be as precise or accurate as bench top analysers. However, the hand‐held analysers used in this study have been validated for use in field studies of exercising horses (Foreman et al . 1999; Silverman and Birks 2002) and also are currently used by team and treating veterinarians.…”

Influência da altitude sobre parâmetros eletrocardiográficos, obtidos por meio do uso do "Holter" em cavalos de enduro em diferentes níveis de condicionamento físico

“…Em relação às médias das frequências cardíacas média e máxi-ma, o estudo mostrou o efeito da altitude alta com aumento significativo desses valores com em comparação com as outras altitudes, resultado semelhante ao observado por Foreman et al (1999).…”

“…A hipótese de que a altitude tem efeitos significativos sobre os parâmetros fisiológicos em cavalos competindo em eventos de três dias e em provas preliminares no Colorado (1900m acima do nível do mar) comparando com provas similares no Arizona (ao nível do mar) foi testada por Foreman et al 1999, que observaram no pós-exercício, no Colorado, aumento da frequência cardíaca, frequência respiratória, diminuição nos valores de cálcio e potássio quando comparada com os valores ao nível do mar. Wickler & Anderson (2000) não constataram diferenças estatisticamente significativas no pico de frequência cardíaca e lactato em teste padronizado em esteira pré-altitude e na pós-altitude concluindo que não houve efeito da aclimatação na altitude, mas observaram diminuição no tempo de recuperação para ambas as variáveis, sugerindo um efeito positivo da aclimatação na altitude.…”