Conditioning Sport Horses - Softcover

Clayton, Hilary M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 096957200X ISBN 13: 9780969572008

Publisher: Sport Horse Publications, 1991

Synopsis

Horses compete in a diverse range of sporting activities, each requiring specific technical skills and different levels of physical fitness. Conditioning Sport Horses provides a background of scientific facts upon which to base a logical system of conditioning. The book is written in three parts. The first part covers exercise physiology with chapters on the cardiovascular, muscular and respiratory systems, thermoregulation, and fluid and electrolyte balance. The second part looks at practical aspects of improving cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and suppleness in equine athletes. Other chapters in part two describe a logical sequence for the daily workout, nutrition of the equine athlete and the use of a heart rate monitor as a conditioning aid. The third part gives sport-specific conditioning advice, with chapters on dressage, show jumping, eventing, combined driving, endurance racing, polo, cutting, reining, sprinting sports and chuck wagon racing. The text is well illustrated, and is complemented by a glossary of terms. Practical advice is given regarding peaking and tapering strategies that bring a horse to a fitness peak on the day of competition, riding tactics that preserve the horse's energy reserves, and methods of coping with adverse conditions, such as hot, humid weather.

About this title

About the Author:

Dr. Hilary Clayton is a veterinarian, researcher, rider and trainer. After graduating from the Glasgow University Veterinary College in 1973 she spent two years working in a mixed practice in Scotland before returning to the academic environment to complete a PhD. For the past 20 years she worked as an academic veterinarian and researcher at veterinary colleges in Great Britain, The Netherlands, Canada and the USA. In 1997, Dr. Clayton became the first incumbent of the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University. She is a past President of the Association for Equine Sports Medicine, and a former Board Member of the American Association of Equine Practitioners.

Dr. Clayton's research interests are in the area of equine sport sciences, especially locomotion analysis and conditioning of sport horses. She has published three books and over a hundred scientific chapters and manuscripts on topics that include locomotion in sport horses, the gait asymmetries associated with different lamenesses, the effects of farriery on locomotion, and the development of conditioning programs for sport horses.

Review:

"Dr Clayton makes a valuable cotnribution to the serious equestrian competitor who wants to maximize the horse's performance." -- Anvil, June 1992

"It is written in clear, simple language and contains some of the most pertinent information available to the horse world" -- Hoof care and Lameness, 1992

"Once in a while a book is published that fills a void - such a book is Conditioning Sport Horses" -- Horse Sport, October 1992

About this edition

• Publisher: Sport Horse Publications
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 096957200X
• ISBN 13: 9780969572008
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 271