Exercising horses on water treadmills: Understanding the workload, mechanics, and conditioning effects of water treadmill exercise.
Date
2019-10-22
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Abstract
Despite the growing popularity of equine water treadmills (WTs), there is very little scientific evidence to support their use in the conditioning or rehabilitation of sport horses. As a result, the success of WT use is in large part dependent on the ability of the operator to assess and create an appropriate plan. Therefore, the projects described in this thesis were established to assess the workload, conditioning effects, and limb kinetics and kinematics associated with equine WT exercise. The results gathered from these studies will allow more evidence-based use of equine WTs for training and rehabilitation. It was essential to first understand the effort required during WT exercise. We found that water height had a greater impact on workload than the speed of the treadmill belt. The greatest workload occurred with water at the height of the stifle, however this was still considered to be a relatively low-intensity exercise. Using our understanding of workload from the first study, the second study aimed to assess the conditioning effects of a WT exercise program. We assessed the fitness of horses before and after 18-days of WT training, including a dry control (exercised without water), using a maximal intensity exercise track test. Peak oxygen consumption, as tested on the racetrack, increased significantly in the experimental horses, indicating that despite the low workload on the WT, exercising horses in high water heights improves fitness. As the primary rationale for using WTs is to reduce concussive forces experienced by the limb, the third study evaluated the effect of water height and speed on segmental acceleration and impact attenuation during WT exercise. The unique properties of water, especially when water was used at a high level, resulted in reduced segmental accelerations and increased attenuation. These findings suggest that WT exercise may be beneficial in the rehabilitation of lower limb injuries in horses. Lastly, we examined 2-dimensional forelimb kinematics of horses on land and under various WT conditions before and after 8-days of WT conditioning. We found that water height alters limb kinematics and may be meaningful for physical rehabilitation. However, prolonged exposure to WT training does not have a lasting effect overground kinematics. Altogether, these studies have elucidated objective information that will serve as the foundation for the effective and safe use of WTs in the training and rehabilitation of performance horses.
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Keywords
water treadmill, equine, horse, conditioning, rehabilitation, gait, maximum aerobic capacity, exercise physiology, kinematics, workload, sports medicine
Citation
McCrae, P. (2019). Exercising horses on water treadmills: Understanding the workload, mechanics, and conditioning effects of water treadmill exercise (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.