Equine Sport With Feeling And Know How

Equine Sport with Feeling and Know How A GUIDELINE FOR HEALTH CHECK-UPS, EXERTION CONTROL AND CONTROLLED TRAINING BY C. HEIPERTZ-HENGST TRANSLATED BY I. WILSON COPYRIGHT 2002 BY POLAR ELECTRO EUROPE BV ISBN 952-5048-71-3 1ST EDITION, PRINTED IN JULY 2002 FINLAND POLAR ELECTRO EUROPE BV FLEURIER BRANCH AV. D.-JEANRICHARD 2, CH-2114 FLEURIER, SWITZERLAND TEL: +41 (0)32 86290 50 FAX: +41 (0)32 86290 55 WWW.HORSEHRM.COM LAYOUT / GRAPHIC DESIGN OULUN TYYPIT OY / FINLAND 3 Table of Contents Introduction 1) Health Check-up Why? How? 1.1) Condition & Behaviour 1.2) Eating Patterns 1.3) Body Temperature 1.4) Resting Heart Rate 1.5) Respiratory Rate 1.6) Blood Circulation and Water Balance 1.7) Summary and Short Review with Reference Values 2) Exertion Control Why? How? 2.1) Equipment 2.2) Exercise Heart Rate 2.3) Respiration under Exercise 2.4) Recovery Heart Rate 2.5) Energy Supply, Hydration, Body Temperature and Thermoregulation under Exercise 2.6) Fitness Tests 4 6 7 7 8 8 10 12 15 15 16 19 19 21 23 25 26 30 32 Endurance Tests Maximum Heart Rate CRI-test 2.7) Training Routine with Heart Rate Control Warm-up Work-out Phases and Zones of Strain and Exertion Cool-down Regeneration 3) Controlled Training Why? How? 3.1) Training Principles 3.2) Training Procedure 3.3) How to Plan Training 3.4) Training Methods Endurance Training Interval Training 3.5) Lactate Performance Graph 3.6) Performance Diagnosis Treadmill Field Tests Competition Tests 3.7) Heart Rate Reactions under Exertion Typical to Horsesports Disciplines 4) Summary 5) Further Information 33 34 36 39 39 42 45 46 47 47 49 50 52 52 53 53 55 58 58 60 61 61 64 65 5 Introduction For centuries people have enjoyed handling horses, and, as the horse is in generally no longer required to fill its roll as a beast of burden, these age-old traditions are particularly popular nowadays and enjoy a great diversity of disciplines. A horse’s health and well-being is the focus for every horseman and horsewoman, be it the owner, trainer, rider, groom, breeder or veterinarian. They all want to be assured that the horse is fit and well. Before you buy or sell a horse, before you exercise or train it, before any challenge you face with your horse, you require accurate and timely information about its health. The POLAR Equine Wellness Kit, together with this practical guide provides all the equipment and information you need and will help you to observe and interpret the vital signs of your horse’s health. These signs should be checked as a routine part of day-to-day management. The POLAR Equine Wellness Kit gives you an accurate measure of your horse’s health and teaches you how to record and interpret the data. It can give you early signs of injury or health problems and help you make decisions which may be lifesaving for your horse, such as when to stop exercise or when to consult the veterinarian. The POLAR Equine Wellness Kit gives you the hardware you need - the POLAR VetCheck heart rate monitor and thermometer - and the information you deserve - for responsible horse care and management. The Polar Equine product used during work allowe the “online” controll of exercise load and offer multiple benefit for training optimatisation - as shown in the second and third part of the book. Neil Craig, Mike Nunan and Christine Heipertz-Hengst, February 2001 6 Health Check-up Health Check, Why? 1 One of the most important skills you can develop in attending to the day-to-day management of your horse is knowing how to check the signs that give clues about the horse’s well-being. There are many such signs, ranging from those you can observe, such as taking note of th