Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2017, 6th- 8th June, Milan, Italy 

HAF © 2013 

Vol. IV, No. 1s   ISSN: 2283-3927 

   

 

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Keywords 

Horse, Standardbred, Treadmill, 

Lactate, Heart Rate 

 

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 

Luca Stucchi 

luca.stucchi@unimi.it 

 

JOURNAL HOME PAGE 

riviste.unimi.it/index.php/haf 

Performance profiling of Standardbred  

racehorses by means of Treadmill  

Exercise Testing. 

Luca Stucchi1*, Miranda Dosi1, Francesco Ferrucci1 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1University of Milan, Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety, Italy 

 

Abstract 

Treadmill exercise testing can be performed on a horse to evaluate the level of fitness with the aim of 

predicting performance (Franklin and Allen, 2014). The speed at 2 mmol/L of blood lactate (VLA2), the 

speed at 4 mmol/L (VLA4) and the speed at 200 bpm of heart rate (V200) are indices that have been 

related to performance (Coroucé et al., 2002). Aim of the present work is to analyze these parameters 

in a population of high performance Standarbred racehorses. 

Six healthy and at the same level of training Standardbred racehorses (average age 3,3±2,0 y.o.) 

underwent an incremental exercise test (Zucca et al., 2003) on a high speed treadmill (Sӓto I, SATO, 

Sweden). During the test heart rate (HR) was monitored with a heart rate meter (Polar horsetrainer, 

Polar, Finland). Venous blood was collected with the aid of a 14G teflon venous catheter placed in the 

jugular vein. Plasma lactate was measured with enzymatic colorimetric method lactate dry-fast kit for 

automatic system (Cobas Mira Classic, Roche, Switzerland). Data were analyzed with a dedicated 

software (Lactate Express, Mesics, Germany) and VLA2, VLA4 and V200 were calculated and 

statistically compared by T-student test for paired sample (Prism, GraphPad, USA). Statistical 

significance was set at p<0,05. 

Average VLA2 was 8.3±0.5 m/s, average VLA4 was 9.2±0.4 m/s, average V200 was 8.1±0.9. There was 

a significant difference between VLA4 and V200 (Fig. 1). No difference was observed between VLA2 

and V200  

V200 is often reported to be close to VLA4, and considered as correspondent to the onset of blood 

lactate accumulation (Coroucé et al., 2002). According to our results, it may be argued that V200 is a 

measure that does not fit with the lactate threshold. 

These data could be used as control for further studies on racehorses with poor performance 

syndrome. 

 

Acknowledgments: This study was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health (#RC 2016, L4083).  

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en


Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2017, 6th- 8th June, Milan, Italy 

HAF © 2013 

Vol. IV, No. 1s   ISSN: 2283-3927 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fig.1: Difference between average VLA2, VLA4 and V200 

 

References 

Couroucé, A., Chrétien, M., Vallette, J.P. 2002 Physiological variables measured under field conditions according to 
age and state of training in French Trotters. Equine Veterinary Journal. 34,91-97 

Franklin, S., Allen, K. 2014 Laboratory exercise testing. In: Hinchcliff, K.W. , Kaneps, A.J., Raymond, J.G. Equine sports 
medicine and surgery.  Saunders, St Luis, USA. 11-20 

Zucca, E., Ferrucci, F., Di Fabio, V., Croci, C., Ferro, E. 2003 The use of electrocardiographic recording with holter 
monitoring during treadmill exercise to evaluate cardiac arrhythmias in racehorses. Veterinary Research 
Communication. 27(1), 811-814 

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en