TORONTO (CP) - At Mohawk Raceway, hoofbeats and heartbeats are both part of the mix this summer as horses hightail it around the track wearing high-tech medical equipment.
Before the standardbreds warm up for the first and ninth races every Monday and Thursday night, researchers strap on a heart monitor that records electrical impulses sent from the horse's heart.
"They're totally unaware of it. To them, it's just another piece of harness," said Prof. Peter Physick-Sheard of the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph.
The veterinarian and his colleague, Kim McGurrin, are leading the first-of-its-kind study at the raceway west of Toronto, hoping to determine what the normal heart rhythms are in horses during "race intensity" exercise.
They want to find out the maximum heart rate of horses when racing as well as variations in rate and rhythm during a race.
Cardiology and cardiovascular diseases are of primary interest to the vets, and they're often asked to examine horses that have "suboptimal performance."
"We're looking all the time for any evidence of dysfunction or abnormality in the cardiovascular system," said Physick-Sheard.
The project began in June and will end in September, but it's too soon to draw any conclusions. The researchers need to conduct a rigorous analysis of all the recordings.
"We have seen some interesting variations on heart rhythm. We have seen a wide range of heart rate responses with the intense exercise, and we've got lots of insights into some of the things that may be happening that may influence performance," said Physick-Sheard.
"But it's probably too early for us to say for sure that what we're finding is normal or abnormal, simply because we're in the process of defining just what normal is."
The electrode harness is made of very thin elastic that fits underneath the racing harness, and isn't visible.
Physick-Sheard says horse heartbeats have been monitored before on treadmills, and other researchers have done it during dressage and showjumping events. But to his knowledge, this is the first time it's been done during races.
The project required co-operation from the horseracing industry.
"Every horse in designated races wears the equipment," he explained.
"It only weighs about half a pound anyway. But we wanted to make sure that there would be no perception or possibility of advantage or disadvantage ... it's a level playing field."
By the end of the project, the researchers hope to build a huge database of information and make it available to other researchers.
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