Exercícios funcionais para equinos de patrulhamento

Abstract

The adoption of a functional training program for athletic and working horses generates innumerable animal health benefits, increasing their flexibility, promoting muscle hypertrophy, reducing the occurrence of injuries and improving their athletic performance as a whole. The objective was to evaluate the effect of functional exercises on the biometry of the epaxial musculature, on the kinematics and behavior of horses submitted to a functional training program.The experiment was carried out in the Mounted Police Squad (Aracaju-SE) from January to April, 2018. Eight mixedbreed equines with 418 ± 50 kg body weight and 14.0 ± 3.5 years of age submitted to patrolling work were used. All animals were submitted to passive stretching exercises (prostration of the anterior and posterior limbs, crossing of the anterior limbs), dynamic mobilization (cervical extension, longitudinal and lateral cervical flexion) and muscular strengthening (external lifting and spinning) 3 times a week, for 90 days. The data were collected on days 0, 30, 60 and 90 after beginning the exercises. The thickness of the Longissimus dorsi muscle (LD) and the total cross-sectional area of Musculus multifidus (MM) were determined by ultrasonography on both left and right sides of the animals. For the kinematic analysis, the animals were filmed to determine the stride length at walk (SLW) and trot (SLT). Behavioral assessment consisted in applying questionnaires to the military to determine how often alert, frightened, distracted, sleepy, and stubborn behaviors were observed in animals considering a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (consistently). A completely randomized design was adopted with measures repeated over time. The data were analyzed through analysis of variance and the means compared by the Tukey test. An increased (P<0.05) was observed in the LD thickness, on both sides, at 90 days after the beginning of the functional exercises. The total cross-sectional area of the MM, on left and right sides, showed a increase (P<0.05) at 30, 60 and 90 days of evaluation. The SLW and SLT increased (P<0.05) throughout the experimental period, reaching maximum values at 90 and 60 days, respectively. The behaviors evaluated did not differ during the evaluation days (P> 0.05). Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that the adoption of a functional training program for working horses is capable of promoting a rapid hypertrophy of Longissimus dorsi and Musculus multifidus muscles and observed an increase on stride length at walk and trot.