Hormone response to training and competition in athletic horses.

The study looks into the stress levels of athletic horses in competitions using hormonal responses as the measure. It finds that competition indeed incites a stress response, more noticeably in dressage horses than in show-jumpers, and that more experienced horses exhibit lower stress responses.

Research Methods

In the study, the research team used fifty-one competitive horses, specifically those involved in show-jumping and dressage.

• The horses’ stress responses were measured in a competition setting and then compared to their stress levels while in a familiar environment.
• Blood samples were collected at various points: before exercise, upon arrival to the school area, and after completing either a show-jumping or a dressage course.
• The plasma was separated from the collected blood samples and stored at -80 degrees Celsius until tests could be run for levels of cortisol and ACTH, hormones associated with stress.
• A group of fourteen healthy horses that were not involved in competition served as the control group.

Results of the Study

The results indicated a few key findings from the measured levels of cortisol and ACTH:

• There was a significant increase in these hormone levels in both performance categories of horses during competition.
• Dressage horses displayed a more pronounced stress response compared to jumping horses.
• Those horses which had more experience and exposure to the competition had much lower stress responses, showing that experience might mitigate the impact of competition-induced stress.

Conclusion and Implications

The paper concludes that competitive environments incite a typical physiological stress response in horses, and the type of training the horses undergo causes different stress responses. These findings could significantly inform the training protocols and routines for competition horses, aiming at reducing their stress for improved performance and welfare.

Moreover, the document suggests that competition horses could be a useful model for studying exercise-induced stress responses, opening a potential research avenue for understanding human athletic stress.