Effects of Age, Exercise Duration, and Test Conditions on Heart Rate Variability in Young Endurance Horses.

ABSTRACT: Although cardiac recovery is an important criterion for ranking horses in endurance competitions, heart rate variability (HRV) has hardly ever been studied in the context of this equestrian discipline. In the present study, we sought to determine whether HRV is affected by parameters such as age, exercise duration and test site. Accordingly, HRV might be used to select endurance horses with the fastest cardiac recovery. The main objective of the present study was to determine the effects of age, exercise duration, and test site on HRV variables at rest and during exercise and recovery in young Arabian endurance horses. Over a 3-year period, 77 young Arabian horses aged 4-6 years performed one or more exercise tests (consisting of a warm-up, cantering at 22 km.h(-1)and a final 500 m gallop

SUBMITTER: Younes M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4852288 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature