Periodic monitoring of some physiological parameters during training in the athletic horse

摘要

The temporal structure of an animal's organism is characterized by different frequency components whose peculiarities are widely influenced by synchronizers. The latter, outlined by some authors as primary and secondary synchronizers depending on their outcome on the investigated variable, have been partly identified in man and in some animals (Carandente, 1990; Piccione et al., 1995, 1998a). Furthermore, for some physiological parameters the capability to modulate or modify the factors that characterize the rhythm, therefore determining a desynchronism or a desynchroniza-tion (Carandente, 1990), have been investigated (mesor, amplitude and acrophase). Considering that many haematochemical, haematological, blood gas analytical and physiological parameters in the horse are subject to periodic rhythmicity (Reinberg and Smolensky, 1994; Greppi et al., 1996), we were interested in investigating how certain daily synchronizers (feeding and training schedules) affect the periodic progress of the following physiological indexes: rectal temperature, heart rate, systolic and diastolic pressure, haematocrit value, glycaemia and lactate concentration. This study is part of a research programme aimed at denning the chronoperformance of the athletic horse.