27th Equine Health and Nutrition Conference: Kentucky Equine Research Welcomes Guests and World-Renowned Speakers

Kentucky Equine Research welcomed more than 200 guests to its 27th Equine Health and Conference, held over two days, February 5-6, in Ocala, Florida.

The Monday schedule featured eight presentations given by stalwarts of the equine research community.

Following introductory comments, the first speakers on the agenda were Drs. Warwick Bayly and Mike Davis, who gave a presentation titled “Exercise Physiology Research: Past, Present, and Future.” The two speakers chronicled equine exercise physiology over the last 40 years, including the advent of the high-speed treadmill, a critical development in the timeline.

As to the future, “The development of technologies that lend themselves to use in the field rather than on treadmills has the potential to open up new research possibilities in terms of conducting larger studies with greater statistical power and collecting data from horses exercising in their natural environments,” Bayly said.

Dr. Emmanuelle van Erck spoke next about her extensive research during her presentation, “Equine Athletes: Field Performance Testing.” Field performance testing is a way to monitor a horse’s response to exercise through connected on-board devices in real field conditions.

She added, “We use the Equimetre (Arioneo) to measure heart rate, ECG, speed, and several locomotion parameters and complete with lactate measurements with a handheld meter. But your eyes are also valuable: you get to see the horses ridden and can get information from their behavior, the rider’s equitation, the tack, and other factors.”

As part of her session, she cataloged the tools she uses and provided video snippets of her work. When asked what she hoped conference attendees would take home from her presentation, she said, “Field exercise testing is easy, rewarding, fun, enlightening and, above all, extremely valuable.”

World-renowned veterinarian and scientist Dr. Hilary Clayton took to the podium after van Erck. She spoke specifically about the training and conditioning of dressage horses.

When asked to provide succinct definitions of training and conditioning, she responded, “I regard training as the preparation of the horse to perform the technical demands of the sport. A show jumper must learn good jumping technique, and a working equitation horse learns to negotiate the obstacles on the course. A dressage horse learns to move in self-carriage, which implies an advanced level of balance that facilitates the performance of the most difficult exercises.

“Conditioning is the physiological preparation of the horse’s body—cardiovascular, respiratory, and muscular systems are trained to fulfill the sport-specific requirements for cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength,” she continued. “Good trainers will find ways to integrate conditioning exercises into the training program.”

Rounding out the speakers for the morning session at the conference was Dr. Joe Pagan, founder and president of Kentucky Equine Research. He spoke about how different equine athletes use specific energy sources during exercise.

“We have a much broader understanding of energy sources than we had 20 years ago,” said Pagan  “At the onset, choosing suitable feeds can be confusing to horse owners. If, though, they look at what exercise they are asking of their horse—is it low-intensity, long-duration exercise or is it high-intensity, short-duration exercise?—it becomes easier to see what is appropriate. Low-intensity exercise should skew toward low-starch, high-fat feeds; high-intensity, short-duration work should tip toward more NSC and lower fat.”

Kicking off the afternoon session were Drs. Warwick Bayly and Emmanuelle van Erck, who gave the presentation titled “Exercise-Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH): Not Just a Racehorse Disorder.”

According to Bayly, EIPH is “a condition in horses where bleeding occurs in the lungs during intense exercise. It is not a disease. It most likely occurs because of the physiologic responses or adaptations that allow horses to exercise as strenuously as they do. This bleeding is typically associated with breaks that develop in the pulmonary capillaries, which are the smallest blood vessels in the lungs.

As to what horses are most affected, he said, “Those engaged in strenuous athletic activities, particularly racehorses and performance horses in disciplines such as barrel racing, polo, show jumping, and eventing. You could say that it is an occupational hazard for them.”

Renowned researcher Dr. Stephanie Valberg provided the next presentation, “Equine Myopathies.” Myopathy is a clinical term used to describe muscle disease. There are numerous causes of myopathies in horses, according to Valberg. To determine the potential cause of myopathy, a history, physical examination, blood work, genetic testing, and muscle biopsy are all potential diagnostic tests to come to a diagnosis.

“Based on history, myopathies are classified as either exercise associated or not exercise-associated,” Valberg said. “To further define the cause of exercise-associated myopathies, the role of muscle weakness, atrophy, and muscle pain are explored.”

Valberg is considered an international leader in equine myopathy research.

To help clear up the differences in squamous and glandular gastric disease and to broaden the understanding of glandular gastric disease, Dr. Ben Sykes spoke next. While squamous gastric disease has been recognized for over 30 years, little work has been done on glandular glastric disease.

“We began to see a clear distinction between squamous and glandular disease in 2015 or so,” Sykes said. “In most horses, there is no relationship between squamous and glandular disease, so you just couldn’t look at a horse and say,’The stomach is clear because the top half looks good, so the bottom half must look good, too.'”

Ultimately, he said, it was around the 2015 mark when the European Consensus Statement came out. “One purpose of the consensus statement was that we wanted to make a clear distinction between squamous disease and glandular disease.”

The final speaker of the day was Robin Bell, who gave a presentation about modern imaging techniques for diagnosing lameness. “How I approach each case is governed by the horse’s use: Is it a high-performance athlete, or a pasture ornament? I take into consideration its competition or racing schedule, the severity and duration of the lameness as well as the owner or trainer’s goals. Some owners are happy to try a treatment trial; others want to know exactly what is causing the problem.”

Kentucky Equine Research hosted a Horseman’s Seminar in the evening that featured three speakers, Dr. Hilary Clayton, Dr. Emmanuelle van Erck, and Dr. Katie Young, a nutritionist with Kentucky Equine Research. Over 150 people attended the evening program.

Check back for more from the second and final day of the 27th Equine Health and Nutrition Conference.