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A field study on warm-up regimes for Thoroughbred and Standardbred racehorses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

A Jansson
A Jansson*
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Nutrition and Management, Box 7024, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-75007 Uppsala, Sweden
*
*[email protected]
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Abstract

The exercise performed by Thoroughbred (TB) and Standardbred (SB) racehorses is similar. Nevertheless, warm-up regimes seem to differ between trainers of the two breeds. The aim of this study was to collect some preliminary results on warm-up strategies used by trainers of SB and TB in Sweden and the physiological response to two warm-up regimes of practical relevance. A questionnaire was answered by eight and nine SB and TB trainers, respectively, and showed that the SB trainers tended to perform longer warm-ups than TB trainers. In the exercise study, a long and a short warm-up (LWU and SWU) were designed by two trainers (SB and TB, respectively) and performed prior to an intensive exercise session. The study showed that the recovery period in the LWU trial in SBs was prolonged compared with the SWU trial and associated with increased body temperature (39.6±0.3 versus 39.1±0.1°C 15 min post-exercise), heart rate, and breathing frequency (66±10 versus 55±6 beats min−1 and 86±11 versus 56±6 breaths min−1 15 min post-exercise). In addition, the body weight loss was increased by 129% compared with the SWU. In the TB trial, the post-exercise breathing frequency was higher following SWU compared with LWU (97±7 versus 71±8 breaths min−1 15 min post-exercise), indicating increased anaerobic metabolism. Although this study involves few animals, it indicated that the LWU for TBs and the SWU for SBs was most beneficial.

Keywords

body weight lossbreathing frequencyexerciserecoverytrainertracktrotters
Type
Research Article
Information
Equine and Comparative Exercise Physiology , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , November 2005 , pp. 219 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

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