Application of a combined global positioning and heart rate monitoring system in jumper horses during an official competition — A preliminary study

Bazzano, Marilena and Giudice, Elisabetta and Rizzo, Maria and Congiu, Fulvio and Zumbo, Alessandro and Arfuso, Francesca and Di Pietro, Simona and Bruschetta, Daniele and Piccione, Giuseppe (2016) Application of a combined global positioning and heart rate monitoring system in jumper horses during an official competition — A preliminary study. Acta Veterinaria Hungarica, 64 (2). pp. 189-200. ISSN 0236-6290

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether a combined global positioning system (GPS)/heart rate (HR) monitoring system is a valuable tool to assess, step by step, the physiological response of HR and its relationship with speed in healthy horses competing in an official show jumping class. Six mares performing a standardised warm-up and jumping course were monitored using a HR/GPS device. Venous blood lactate (BL), assessed before and after exercise, showed a significant increase (P = 0.0004) following the physical effort. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant changes in HR throughout the experimental period. The analysis of HR data recorded during the warm-up jumping stage showed significantly higher HR (P = 0.001) in the recovery period compared to the related jumping phase. Shifting the fence height from 100 cm to 125 cm during the warm-up jumps was also found to cause a significant increase (P = 0.016) in HR. According to these preliminary results, the simultaneous logging of heart rate and speed has the potential to be a reliable and powerful technique for field testing that can help in the monitoring of the horse’s response to jumping effort during training and competition.

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