In the wake of numerous cardiovascular-related deaths in the sport in recent years, the U.S. Eventing Association Cardiovascular Study Task Force held their first pilot study of heart and lung function in horses at Plantation Field.
The inaugural trial utilized a team of approximately 25 veterinarians, students and volunteers. About 20 horses from the two- and three-star divisions were volunteered by their owners and riders to participate in one or multiple phases of the non-invasive study.
“I was very pleased with the wonderful cooperation that we got from absolutely everyone,” said veterinarian Catherine Kohn, a task force member. “Organizer Denis Glaccum was extremely gracious, and, most importantly, the riders were very generous with their time. We got a good number of horses to study, and we’ve collected the data. Now we’ll just have to assimilate it and find out what it means.”
On Thursday and Friday, veterinarians listened to the two- and three-star horses’ hearts at rest, then performed echocardiograms (ultrasounds) on hearts and lungs. They also recorded short electrocardiograms (EKGs) on several three-star horses to be compared with on-course data from Saturday.
In a tent set up at the cross-country finish line, teams worked with five machines to perform echocardiograms of the heart and lungs immediately after the horses finished. A second EKG was also performed on each horse in addition to the traditional temperature, pulse and respiration data recorded.
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“Our goal was to get those [echocardiograms] as soon after the horse pulled up as possible,” Kohn said. “The whole process took between two and four minutes at the finish.”
In addition to these finish-line tests, a handful of horses were equipped with a small device designed to record a real-time EKG on course. The palm-sized mechanisms were attached to saddle pads.
“We were able to do nine studies, and we got at least partial readings out of seven of those and a very complete reading out of at least one,” Kohn said. “So we’ll have some information about what the EKG was doing as the horse was actually galloping around the cross-country course.”
Kohn expects that it will take researchers about two months to organize, analyze and compare the data collected. A similar but smaller study may be conducted at the Fair Hill CCI (Md.) in October.
