How to monitor the impact of a race on a horse's fitness?

Good habits to adopt after a race. Use the EQUIMETRE data to gradually resume the horse's work.

• Good habits 

First of all, it is necessary to continue to look at all the parameters to see the evolution of the horse over time. Special attention can be focused on the heart rate because a horse that is in pain will have a very high heart rate even in the small canter. This will make it possible to detect if he was injured the day before, during the race, or during transport.  

As the horse is a routine animal, it is important that he gets back to his usual environment as soon as possible after the race. Returning to its box, training track and mates contributes to its mental, and therefore physical, well-being.

• • For trotters:
    In order to eliminate the toxins accumulated the day of the race, we can consider trotting for about an hour the day after the race. Two days after the race, he will be ready to resume training, in the form of interval training, alternating easy and more intense exercises. 
  • For flat racing gallopers: 
    The week after the race, the horse will run a small post-race canter, but no work will be scheduled. Major work will restart a week after the race to gradually return to an optimal level of fitness before a race. 

• Objectivize the impact of a race thanks to data 

  • Analyze the recovery work after the race
    During the post-race small work, the recovery indicators can be analyzed and closely monitored to check that recovery improves from one small work to the next.
    If recovery is poor, or if the heart rate shows abnormally high levels compared to pre-race levels, an electrocardiogram (ECG) investigation with a veterinarian may be relevant as pathologies may emerge at the end of the race. 
  • Getting back to the pre-race state of fitness
    In order to be sure of the horse's state of fitness before his next race, it is a good idea to use the tools for comparison with one reference training. If this training is reproducible (time, speed, terrain, track), the interesting points of comparison concern the recovery parameters. We look at the horse's heart rate level immediately after the effort, and his heart rate at 15 minutes. These should be as low as possible, and at least as low as those of the reference training.