Intensity and Distance of Exercise During Training in Advanced Three-day-event Horses and Thoroughbred Racehorses Assessed Using KER ClockIt Race Smartphone Applications
Joe D. Pagan1, Emma Mulvey1, Kathleen O’Neill1, Natalie Ireland1 and Mike Davies2,
1Kentucky Equine Research, Versailles, Kentucky, USA; 2ClockItEQ, Ltd., Perth, Western Australia
Nutrient requirements for performance horses are dependent on the intensity and duration of exercise during training and competition. Differences between racehorses and upper-level event horses have not been previously defined. This study measured daily heart rate (HR), session duration, and distance traveled in 11 Advanced-level three-day-event horses and 6 Thoroughbred racehorses during training over a 2-month period using novel smartphone applications. (KER ClockItTM Sport and KER ClockItTM Race; Kentucky Equine Research, Versailles, KY and ClockItEQ, Perth, WA). A Bluetooth-equipped heart-rate monitor (Polar H7) was used to measure and transmit HR data to the application. Velocities were divided into 5 ranges corresponding to the most common gait at each speed. Training intensity was defined based on specific HR zones expressed as a percent of maximal HR (HRmax), which was assumed to be 220 BPM. The event horses were in training in Ocala, Florida, during February and March 2015, while the racehorses were in training in Lexington, Kentucky, during July and August 2016. The event horses participated in a total of 33 competitions and the racehorses raced a total of 11 times during the study. Racehorses were typically ridden 6 days a week and hand-walked once a week for 15 minutes. Training exercise sessions consisted of either galloping, jogging, or 600-1000 m breezes and averaged 20 minutes in duration. After an exercise bout, racehorses typically hand-walked for 20 minutes and hand-grazed for 15 minutes. Event horses did a wide variety of exercise including hacking, trot sets, jumping, cross-country schooling, and gallop sets. These exercise sessions averaged 40-45 minutes in duration. The intensity and duration of training was different between event horse and racehorses. Event horses trained over twice the weekly distance compared to racehorses (37.2 km vs 17.1 km), but their intensity of training was lower. Racehorses galloped an average of 2.7 days/wk compared to event horses, which only galloped 0.5 days/wk. During each gallop session, racehorses galloped further (2130 m vs 520 m) and spent more time with HR >80% HRmax (2.5 min vs 0.5 min) than event horses.
Weekly exercise intensity, duration and distance
| Minutes per week in each HR range (% HRmax)(mean±SE) | ||||||
|
<50% |
50%-60% | 60%-70% | 70%-80% | 80%-90% | 90%+ | |
| Eventing | 177.3 ± 6.3a | 36.4 ± 2.3a | 16.6 ± 1.2a | 7.6 ± 0.7a | 1.4 ± 0.2a | 0.4 ± 0.1a |
| Racing | 54.1 ± 2.4b | 13.9 ± 1.3b | 11.8 ± 3.0a | 8.2 ± 1.5a | 5.1 ± 0.6b | 2.7 ± 1.2b |
| Weekly training distance by gait (km)(mean±SE) | ||||||
|
Slow (<1 m/s) |
Walk (1-3 m/s) | Trot (3-5 m/s) | Canter (5-8 m/s) | Gallop (>8 m/s) | TOTAL | |
| Eventing | 1.6 ± 0.1a | 10.4 ± 0.6a | 19.3 ± 0.9a | 5.4 ± 0.6a | 0.5 ± 0.1a | 37.2 ± 1.7a |
| Racing | 0.3 ± 0.1b | 2.62 ± 0.2b | 6.5 ± 0.6b | 2.9 ± 0.6a | 4.9 ± 1.0b | 17.1 ± 1.4b |
| a,b,c Values in the same row with different superscripts are different (p<0.05) | ||||||