A field study on warm-up regimes for Thoroughbred and Standardbred racehorses

The exercise performed by Thoroughbred (TB) and Standardbred (SB) racehorses is similar. Nevertheless, warm-up regimes seem to differ between trainers of the two breeds. The aim of this study was to collect some preliminary results on warm-up strategies used by trainers of SB and TB in Sweden and the physiological response to two warm-up regimes of practical relevance. A questionnaire was answered by eight and nine SB and TB trainers, respectively, and showed that the SB trainers tended to perform longer warm-ups than TB trainers. In the exercise study, a long and a short warm-up (LWU and SWU) were designed by two trainers (SB and TB, respectively) and performed prior to an intensive exercise session. The study showed that the recovery period in the LWU trial in SBs was prolonged compared with the SWU trial and associated with increased body temperature (39.6±0.3versus39.1±0.1°C 15 min post-exercise), heart rate, and breathing frequency (66±10versus55±6 beats min−1and 86±11versus56±6 breaths min−115 min post-exercise). In addition, the body weight loss was increased by 129% compared with the SWU. In the TB trial, the post-exercise breathing frequency was higher following SWU compared with LWU (97±7versus71±8 breaths min−115 min post-exercise), indicating increased anaerobic metabolism. Although this study involves few animals, it indicated that the LWU for TBs and the SWU for SBs was most beneficial.