Friday News & Notes from Kentucky Equine Research

The 2017 Thoroughbred Makeover is underway at the Kentucky Horse Park! Love this photo as a reminder of how the event connects OTTBs, who not too long ago were coming off the track and facing an uncertain future, with new careers and loving homes. Abby Powell has written up a guide to this year’s Makeover and we’ll be bringing that to you first thing so check back after you’ve had your coffee for that!

National Holiday: National Get Funky Day

Major Events This Week: 

Boekelo: WebsiteRide Times & Live ScoringFriday Ride TimesLive StreamEN’s CoverageEN’s TwitterEN’s Instagram

U.S. Weekend Preview:

Course Brook Farm H.T.  [Website] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Kent School Fall H.T. [Website] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

WindRidge Farm Fall H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times]

Maryland at Loch Moy H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Radnor Hunt H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Middle Tennessee Pony Club H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

Heritage Park H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

Willow Draw Charity H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

Woodside International CIC & H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

The Event at Skyline H.T.  [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

News From Around the Globe:

Here’s your opportunity to ride with a legend of American eventing! The American Trakehner Association is hosting a David O’Connor clinic Nov. 8-9 at Tryon International Equestrian Center. David will be teaching small groups of Beginner Novice through Advanced level riders, focusing on dressage, show jumping and show jumping exercises for cross country. On-site stabling available. $450 for two days, $275 for one, with deep discounts for ATA members. Entries close Oct. 17. [ATA]

Woodside International Horse Trials kicks off tomorrow and the USEA is on top of coverage. Between Beginner Novice through Advanced horse trial divisions, CIC*, CIC2* and CIC3* FEI divisions, and the USEA Young Event Horse West Coast Championships, there’s plenty enough going on. Keep an eye on the USEA website and Facebook page for all the latest. [Gold Cup Fast Facts: 2017 Woodside International Horse Trials]

Hot on Horse Nation: ‘Autumn Is My Favorite Color’: A Few Autumn-Inspired Equestrian Counter-Memes

KER ClockIt™ Session of the Week

The KER ClockIt Sport mobile app tracks an individual horse’s intensity and duration of exercise through speed, heart rate, and GPS, so that horse owners can assess their horse’s fitness in order to condition and feed each horse appropriately for the work they’re actually performing.

The ClockIt Sport session featured this week belongs to an eventer who competed with her horse in a training division class during an event at the Kentucky Horse Park. The graph below shows the horse’s cross-country section. He spent 2:36 minutes in the yellow heart rate zone (80-90%). His average speed was 460 m/min with an average heart rate of 175 bpm. The horse ended up finishing third in its class with 3.6 time penalties from cross-country.

The yellow heart rate zone (80-90%) is where many human athletes train to improve fitness. In this zone, there begins to be a significant level of anaerobic energy generation, and blood lactate starts to accumulate. In studies performed by KER, researchers using KER ClockIt Sport found that during the cross-country phase of events, horses exercised in heart-rate zones that are indicative of anaerobic energy generation and blood lactate accumulation.

By logging into your account on the KER ClockIt website, you will be able to see detailed reports of each session, like the one above. Once you are signed in, you can view your detailed sessions under the “Sessions” tab.

New to ClockIt? Check out our Getting Started page.