To investigate the effect of increasing velocity within one gait on horse and rider movement and to describe the resulting changes in saddle forces, seven ridden dressage horses were examined on an instrumented treadmill. The speed ranged between 1.3-1.8 m/s at walk and 2.6-3.6 m/s at trot. Kinematics of the horse and rider, vertical ground reaction forces and saddle forces were measured simult...

The determination of cholinesterase (ChE) activity in domestic animals is of great importance for diagnosis and research purposes. The present work was aimed to determine the baseline plasma ChE activities (acetylcholinesterase, AChE and butyrylcholinestarase, BChE) of Argentine saddle horses sampled from equine farms of Bogota (Colombia) and its surroundings. Plasma AChE and BChE catalytic act...

Horses were domesticated 6000 years ago and since then different types of approaches have been developed to enhance the horse's wellbeing and the human-horse relationship. Even though horse training is an increasingly important research area and many articles have been published on the subject, equitation is still the sport with the highest rate of human injuries, and a significant percentage o...

This study was performed to evaluate the sedative and analgesic effects of xylazine (X) and tramadol (T) intravenously (IV) administered to horses. Six thoroughbred saddle horses each received X (1.0 mg/kg), T (2.0 mg/kg), and a combination of XT (1.0 and 2.0 mg/kg, respectively) IV. Heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), rectal temperature (RT), indirect arterial pressure (IAP), capillary ref...

BACKGROUND Training of young Thoroughbred horses must balance development of cardiopulmonary function and aerobic capacity with loading of the musculoskeletal system that can potentially cause structural damage and/or lameness. High-speed equine treadmills are sometimes used to supplement exercise on a track in the training of young Thoroughbreds because the horse can run at high speeds but wit...

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY The diagnosis of equine back disorders is challenging. Objectively determining movement of the vertebral column may therefore be of value in a clinical setting. OBJECTIVES To establish whether surface-mounted inertial measurement units (IMUs) can be used to establish normal values for range of motion (ROM) of the vertebral column in a uniform population of horses ...