Effect of conditioning horses every third day at v10 on measures of fitness

Summary This study examined the effect of exercising horses five times per fortnight with two bouts of 5 min duration at their v10 with 2 days between consecutive exercise sessions. Five Anglo-Arabian horses were treadmill-conditioned for 6 weeks. A standardized exercise test (SET) was performed at the beginning of the conditioning period (CP) to determine the blood lactate-running speed (BLRS) and the heart rate-running speed (HRRS) relationship and the SET was repeated every 2 weeks. After each SET, the BLRS relation was used to calculate the horse’s speed (v  =  velocity), which produced a blood lactate concentration (LA) of 10 mmol/l (v10) and 4 mmol/l (v4). From the HRRS was calculated the speed at which the horses had a heart rate of 180 b/min (v180). Each horse was then conditioned for the next 2 weeks five times at its individual v10 for two 5-min bouts. Exercise speed was individually adapted to the new v10 every 2 weeks. In addition, horses were submitted to another SET prescription to determine the peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) before, after 3 weeks and at the end of CP. The v4 of horses increased during the CP (p   0.05). VO2peak increased in the first 3 weeks of CP (p   0.05). The conclusion drawn was that exercising horses five times per fortnight at their v10 for two 5-min bouts with 2 days between consecutive exercise sessions improved v4 and VO2peak but not v180.