Heart rate during a defined exercise test in horses with heart and lung diseases.

The research article explores the difference in heart rates between healthy horses and horses with chronic lung or heart diseases during and after gradually intensified exercise. The study concludes an increased heart rate during exercise in horses with lung disease and atrial fibrillation, while this doesn’t prove true for horses with heart valve disease.

Research Methodology

• The researchers grouped the horses into three: healthy horses, horses suffering from chronic pulmonary disorder, and horses with chronic heart disease, making a total of 31 and 5 animals for the sick groups respectively.
• The researchers subjected the animals to a gradually increasing exercise test during which they determined the heart rates of the horses.

Key Findings

• In horses with lung disease, a strong correlation was found between the stage of the disease and the heart rate during the exercise test. It suggests that as the disease progressed, the heart rate of the horses increased during exercise.
• We see a different trend in the case of horses with heart valve disease. Here, no significant difference was observed in heart rate during exercise when compared to the healthy animals. This highlights that heart valve disease might not impact heart rate during exercise in horses significantly.
• However, horses with atrial fibrillation showed a significant increase in their heart rates during exercise. This suggests that this type of heart disease considerably affects the performance of horses during physical activities.
• The recovery rate of pulse and respiration in horses after a 20-minute trot was also examined. Interestingly, it didn’t show any correlation with the stage of the disease or the horse’s pulse and respiration rate after the gradually increasing exercise. This implies that the intensity of these illnesses might not directly relate to the recovery rate of pulse and respiration in horses post exercise.

Conclusion

• The findings of this study shed light on how chronic heart or lung diseases affect the cardiovascular response of horses to exercise. It derives that lung disorders and atrial fibrillation, rather than heart valve disease, significantly influence the exercising heart rate in these animals.
• However, the recovery rate post exercise doesn’t seem to be directly affected by the severity of these diseases, leading to the need for further investigation to substantiate these observations.