effective | Horse Racing Free Tips

Chill Out: Researchers Compare Cooling Methods For Equine Athletes

Elite athletes like racehorses and three-day event horses sometimes exercise on hot, humid days, often resulting in high body temperatures that must be lowered quickly before heat-related stressors set in. While much research has been performed on effective cooling strategies, a new study compared several different cooling methods.^*

[Story Continues Below]

Thoroughbreds were exercised on an inclined treadmill until the pulmonary artery temperature reached 107.6 degrees Fahrenheit. One of five cooling methods was then implemented. The methods included:

Walking on a treadmill with one commercial fan placed 6.5 feet in front of the horse set at low velocity to simulate the breeze that would occur if walked outside (control);
Walking on a treadmill with two fans placed 13 feet in front of the horse set at almost twice the airflow of the fans used in the control;
Cooling with intermittent application of cold water (4.2 gallons at 50 degrees Fahrenheit) every three minutes on its body behind the neck, scraping as much water as possible after dousing; two cycles of dousing performed with return to treadmill walking and two low-speed fans in the interim;
Cooling with intermittent application of cold water (16 liters; 50° F or 10° C) every three minutes on its body behind the neck with no scraping; two cycles performed with return to the treadmill and two low-speed fans in the interim; and
Showering continuously with tap water (78.8 degrees Fahrenheit) for 30 minutes with no return to the treadmill.

To determine the most effective cooling method, researchers measured the time necessary for the pulmonary artery temperature to return to 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, and recorded the rectal temperature at 30 minutes after onset of cooling.

The researchers concluded that showering the horse continuously with a large volume of tap water resulted in the most rapid decrease of both pulmonary artery and rectal temperatures, signifying its effectiveness as a way to achieve cooling in hot, humid conditions.

Sweat production goes hand-in-hand with exercise. Multiple factors determine how much sweat is lost doing any exercise bout (heat, humidity, and work intensity, for example). Light exercise with minimal sweating may induce a sweat loss of 1 quart to 1 gallon, while high-performance horses at the peak of exertion may have losses of 12.25 to 3 gallons.

Because large quantities of electrolytes are lost in sweat, electrolyte supplementation becomes a key factor in managing the diets of performance horses. Choose research-proven electrolytes formulated by specialists in equine nutrition and exercise physiology.

Electrolyte supplementation is not season-specific. Well-formulated electrolytes should be used whenever horses sweat on a daily or near daily basis, no matter the season.

^*Takahashi, Y., H. Ohmura, K. Mukai, T. Shiose, and T. Takahashi. 2020. A comparison of five cooling methods in hot and humid environments in Thoroughbred horses. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 91:103130.

Ancient Remedy Shows Promise As Antimicrobial

Antimicrobial resistance is of great concern to those involved in equine health; multidrug resistance is posing a massive challenge to managing microbial infections. Infections that cause biofilms are even harder to resolve; it's estimated that biofilms require 100 to 1,000 times higher antibiotic concentrations that non-biofilm-producing bacterial infections.

Drs. Jessica Furner-Pardoe, Blessing Anonye, Ricky Cain, John Moat, Catherine Ortori, Christina Lee, David Barrett, Christophe Corre and Freya Harrison investigated the efficacy of a 1,000-year-old herbal remedy found in a 10^th century Old English medical compendium. The remedy, called Bald's eye salve, consists of onion, garlic, dry white wine and bovine bile salts.

The team found that this topical remedy was useful against specific soft tissue wound pathogens. To create the salve, the scientists chopped and crushed the onions and garlic, and brewed them with wine and bile salts. They then stored the liquid in sterilized glass bottles at around 39 degrees Fahrenheit in the dark for nine days. The ingredients were then strained and centrifuged to obtain a liquid that was filtered and stored in the same sterilized glass bottles.

When tested against wounds that contained MRSA, Bald's eye salve obtained a 90 percent bacterial kill and was comparable to vancomycin. The medication didn't cause damage to either human cells in the laboratory or to mice.

The combination of all the ingredients is what makes it effective against biofilms. If any ingredient is left out, the preparation is not effective.

Read the full article here.

Preliminary Proof: Drones An Inexpensive, Safer Alternative For Herding Feral Horses

Feral horses that roam over extensive areas of land can be difficult to corral when necessary for management purposes, like for contraceptive treatment. Pushing the animals into a corral with a helicopter is a common way to contain them, but this method is stressful and potentially harmful to the horses; it's also expensive.

Drs. Sue McDonnell and Catherine Torcivia of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine New Bolton Center investigated if free-roaming horses would follow a drone into a corral. They based their hypothesis on the concept that a horse's natural instinct is to become alert to novel objects and intruders, and to respond as a herd to level of arousal elicited.

To test their theory, the duo used a consumer-grade drone and the university's herd of 123 semi-feral ponies. They discovered that the drone was able to lead the horses into corrals on the first attempt and again on seven of nine additional attempts over the next month.

The drone led the horses to the same and different destinations. The horses tended to follow at a fast walk, with some slow trotting intervals interspersed. In each case, a stallion or multiple stallions first alerted the herd to the drone. The males then vocalized their concern and initiated the herd's following of the drone's retreat.

The scientists found that the drone was most effective when flying between 6 and 20 feet above the ground and leading the herd at a distance of about 30 feet. Next, the duo will test the drone on a herd of feral horses in a larger enclosure. If successful, they will conclude that drone use may provide a lower-cost, lower-stress, repeatable option for capturing feral horses, and improve both human and equine safety.

Read the full project report here.

Study: How To Cool Out A Horse Quickly

Five methods commonly used to cool out horses in hot and humid environment were evaluated to determine which cooled the horses the quickest. The study team used rectal temperature and pulmonary artery blood temperature, which is an indicator of core body temperature, for their findings.

Drs. Yuji Takahashi, Hajime Ohmura, Kazutaka Mukai, Tomoki Shiose and Toshiyuki Takahashi exercised five Thoroughbreds on a treadmill in WetBulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) of nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit. WBGT is a measure of heat stress in direct sunlight; it considers temperature, humidity, sun angle, wind speed and cloud cover. This is different than the heat index, which only takes into consideration humidity and temperature in shady areas.

Each horse was worked at a canter five separate times until their arterial blood temperature reached nearly 108 degrees F. They were then given a different cooling treatment each time. These included:

Walking on a treadmill with slow fan blowing on the horse
Walking on a treadmill with two large fans blowing on the horse
Intermittent cold-water hosing and scraping while walking on a treadmill. Every three minutes the horse was taken off the treadmill and hosed all over his body, but not his head and neck, with 4 gallons of 50 degree water, scraped and returned to the treadmill.
Intermittent cold-water hosing and no scraping used the same parameters as above, but did not remove the water from the horse
Continually using cool water on a horse that is not on a treadmill. The horse was hosed all over with water that was nearly 80 degrees F.

The team determined that the fastest method of cooling out a horse was continually hosing the horse with cool water. This lowered the horse's temperature five times faster than intermittent hosing with cold water. Scraping off the water did not affect the rate of cooling.