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Journal ArticleDOI

Cortisol release, heart rate and heart rate variability in the horse and its rider: Different responses to training and performance

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TLDR
The study has shown that the presence of spectators caused more pronounced changes in cardiac activity in the riders than it did in their horses.
Abstract
Although some information exists on the stress response of horses in equestrian sports, the horse-rider team is much less well understood. In this study, salivary cortisol concentrations, heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV), SDRR (standard deviation of beat-to-beat interval) and RMSSD (root mean square of successive beat-to-beat intervals) were analysed in horses and their riders (n=6 each) at a public performance and an identical rehearsal that was not open to the public. Cortisol concentrations increased in both horses and riders (P<0.001) but did not differ between performance and rehearsal. HR in horses and riders increased during the rehearsal and the public performance (P<0.001) but the increase in HR was more pronounced (P<0.01) in riders than in their horses during the public performance (from 91 ± 10 to 150 ± 15 beats/min) compared to the rehearsal (from 94 ± 10 to 118 ± 12 beats/min). The SDRR decreased significantly during the equestrian tasks in riders (P<0.001), but not in their horses. The RMSSD decreased in horses and riders (P<0.001) during rehearsal and performance, indicating a decrease in parasympathetic tone. The decrease in RMSSD in the riders was more pronounced (P<0.05) during the performance (from 32.6 ± 6.6 to 3.8 ± 0.3 ms) than during the rehearsal (from 27.5 ± 4.2 to 6.6 ± 0.6 ms). The study has shown that the presence of spectators caused more pronounced changes in cardiac activity in the riders than it did in their horses.

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Citations
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'Four Seasons' in an animal rescue centre; classical music reduces environmental stress in kennelled dogs.

TL;DR: The results of this study show the potential of auditory stimulation as a highly effective environmental enrichment technique for kennelled dogs, but also indicate the requirement for further investigations into the way in which auditory stimulation should be incorporated within the daily kennel management regime in order to harness the full physiological and psychological benefits of music.
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Effects of season, age, sex, and housing on salivary cortisol concentrations in horses

TL;DR: Time of the day and reproductive state of the horses are thus important for experiments that include analysis of salivary cortisol in saliva and are increased in active breeding sires.
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Indicators of stress in equitation

TL;DR: A review of the existing literature on various measures of stress taken specifically in the context of equitation science can be found in this paper, where the largest proportion of agreement (i.e. both parameters simultaneously indicated either higher, insignificant or lower stress compared to a control treatment) was found for heart rate and heart rate variability parameters, while generally limited agreement was shown for cortisol.
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Rider impacts on equitation

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the impact of the rider on equitation practice and how rider education could inform equine management and training regimens to promote health, welfare and performance.
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Measuring heart rate variability in horses to investigate the autonomic nervous system activity - Pros and cons of different methods

TL;DR: The current review presents an overview of the technical issues of HRV analyses, then discusses recent HRV measurements in horses and finally gives recommendations for standardised IBI-measurement and HRV analysis in horses.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

An advanced detrending method with application to HRV analysis

TL;DR: An advanced, simple to use, detrending method to be used before heart rate variability analysis (HRV) is presented and operates like a time-varying finite-impulse response high-pass filter.
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Heart rate variability as a measure of autonomic regulation of cardiac activity for assessing stress and welfare in farm animals -- a review.

TL;DR: Data from earlier research demonstrate that HRV is a promising approach for evaluating stress and emotional states in animals, and has the potential to contribute much to the understanding and assessment of the underlying neurophysiological processes of stress responses and different welfare states in farm animals.
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Corticosteroids in relation to fear, anxiety and psychopathology.

TL;DR: The present review shows that different aspects of fear and anxiety are affected differentially by the occupation of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) or glucoc Corticosteroids (GR) at different phases of the stress response.
Journal ArticleDOI

Cortisol release and heart rate variability in horses during road transport

TL;DR: Transport of horses over short and medium distances leads to increased cortisol release and changes in heart rate and HRV indicative of stress, and the degree of these changes is related to the duration of transport.
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