Objective gait monitoring is increasingly accessible to trainers.A more comprehensive understanding of ‘normal’ gait adaptations is required.Forty two-year-old thoroughbred racehorses were recruited when entering training and followed for 22 months.
Gait analysis was iphone 14 price chicago performed by equipping each horse with an inertial measurement unit with inbuilt GPS (GPS-IMU) mounted on the dorsum.Horses were exercised as per their regular training regimen.Data were analysed using a linear mixed model.
For two-year-old horses, there was a non-linear pattern of stride duration (SD) over time (p < 0.001) with SD decreasing initially and then ‘flattening off’ over time (linear and quadratic coefficients −0.29 ms/week and 0.
006 ms/week2).Horses showed an increase in SD of 2.21 ms (p < 0.
001) per 100 m galloped, and over time, SD decreased by 0.04 ms (p < 0.001) with each 100 m galloped per week.
Three-year-old horses overall showed no change in SD over time (p = 0.52), but those that had a period of time off showed a decrease in SD of −0.59 ms per week (p = 0.
02).They showed an increase in SD of 1.99 ms (p < 0.
001) per earthbath facial wipes 100 m galloped, and horses that had a period of time off showed an increase in stride duration of 1.05 ms per 100 m galloped (p = 0.01) compared to horses which did not have time off.
Horses demonstrate an adaptation to high-speed exercise over time.SD decreases with training when other factors are controlled for in naïve horses.