CRITERIA TO EVALUATE THE STATE OF TRAININ G IN HORSES

This study investigated if there are physiological indicators for the state of training in horses. In contrary to results in the literature, where the question mainly was if the training effort could be increas ed, in the present investigation we were looking for a measure of the condition due to continuous training. The study was conducted on 32 Ha nnovarian young stallions in the testing station of Adelheidsdorf in 1 994. As a ''standardised stress'' a gallop over a distance of 2000 m w as applied by riding at a speed of 400 m/min. During the twelve months training period the test was performed three times, in May, August, a nd October. Directly after gallopping three blood samples were taken f rom the Jugular vein at time intervals of 60 sec. A total of 20 parame ters were registered, belonging to the areas of muscle metabolism, aci d-base status, and cardio vascular system. All traits were significant ly influenced by testing date and stallions. Continually ascending res ults were obtained for the parameters of albumin, lactate dehydrogenas e, and partial CO2 whereas lactate, protein, pH, base excess, and buff er base decreased. With this kind of experimental design some traits w ere by fault classified as not appropriate. By prolonged blood samplin g period results would certainly have been different. This is true for the examples of creatine cinase and cortisol. Under the present exper imental conditions, however, a more frequent blood sampling was not po ssible. The study shall be continued with a small number of animals wh ich have indwelling catheters for more frequent blood sampling over a longer period of time to investigate the time course of the most promi sing traits after stress.