Does Swim Training Improve Athletic Performance of Mangalarga Marchador Horses

Introduction Swimming can be used for conditioning and rehabilitation of horses. Its main advantage is minimal musculoskeletal stress. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of swimming on athletic performance of Mangalarga Marchador horses. Methods Eight horses (6.7 ± 2.9 years old, 426 ± 32 kg) conditioned to swim training were evaluated twice, before (M1) and after (M2) four weeks of training consisting of 60 minutes of hand-walking twice a week, alternating with marcha exercise with a rider for 40 minutes three days a week, and 20 minutes of marcha with a rider each day of the weekend. Four animals were randomly selected after M1 as a test group and were submitted to swim training for 15 minutes twice a week in a lake. During M1 and M2, heart rate, hematocrit, AST, CK and lactate were recorded before (T0) and after 5 (T1), 30 (T2) and 120 (T3) minutes of exercise (marcha gait for 40 minutes). Variables were analyzed for normality with Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Comparisons between M1 and M2 and between control and test groups on each moment were made using paired t-test (P<0.05). Results No differences were observed for HR, hematocrit, lactate and AST. Serum CK was significantly different for the test group between M1 and M2 for T1 (P = 0.0175), T2 (P = 0.0498) and T3 (P = 0.0226) with higher values for M2; also significant differences were observed between control and test groups for M1 at T1 (P = 0.0385), T2 (P = 0.0029) and T3 (P = 0.0180) with higher values for control group. Conclusions The swimming training protocol used did not improve the athletic performance of selected horses. Ethical Animal Research Study approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal Use at Universidade Vila Velha (CEUA-UVV), Protocol 251-2013. Sources of funding: UVV-ES. Competing interests: none.