Friday News & Notes from Kentucky Equine Research

Leslie Wylie all smiles on Day 1. Day 2 brought much colder weather and heavy rains. Photo by Julian Herbert/Mongol Derby.

Finally we can say that Wylie found a horse that’s truly her size! What I really want to know when she gets back is how it felt to canter a pony with literally no neck. I mean, where did its neck go? What did evolution tell that little Mongolian pony to make its neck disappear? Questions, I have them.

Track Leslie Wylie on the Mongol Derby! 

National Holiday: National Presidential Joke Day (have your own fun with this one)

U.S. Weekend Preview:

GMHA Festival of Eventing CIC & H.T. [Website] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Fair Hill H.T. [Website] [Entry Status]

WindRidge Farm Summer H.T. [Website] [Entry Status]

Otter Creek Summer H.T. [Website] [Entry Status]

The Summer Event at Woodside H.T. [Website]  [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

Area VII Young Rider Benefit H.T. [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]

Stanton Farms H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

Colorado Horse Park 3DE & H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

News From Around the Globe:

Registration for the 2017 USEA Convention is now open! From December 6-10, eventers will gather together at the Westin Long Beach Hotel in Long Beach, California to discuss, learn and celebrate the sport. A vacation to California in December sounds delightful! Early birds save $50. [Register Here]

The USEA has officially released an online test and certification for eventing safety coordinators. The test itself derives its questions from the USEA Safety Coordinator Manual. Test takers are asked 25 questions ranging from true and false questions to multiple choice. To receive certification, the test taker must answer at least 80% of the questions correctly. The test is not yet mandatory, but highly recommended. [New Safety Coordinator Certification from USEA]

There is a baby goat wearing a neck tie at Pony Finals. Do I really need to elaborate??! You should click here to get (more than) your daily dose of cuteness. [COTH]

Head to Waredaca next weekend for your perfect AEC prep run! They’re offering the option to do single dressage tests, combined tests, or all three so you can get exactly what you need before the big championship competition. [Waredaca Omnibus]

KER ClockIt™ Session of the Week

This week we examine an excerpt from a session in which the rider used hills to condition her horse. As you can see in the session excerpt below, the horse’s heart rate (purple line) increased as the horse started to climb the hill (blue line), despite minor changes in speed. By using a hill, a rider can easily raise a horse’s heart rate into a higher conditioning zone without increasing speed.

Multiple KER treadmill studies have shown that exercising horses on an incline greatly increases work intensity as measured by oxygen consumption, heart rate, and lactate production. These studies have shown that at a canter speed, a 1% increase in grade increases a horse’s heart rate 6 bpm—the same effect on heart rate as increasing speed 35 m/min on a level treadmill. Therefore, equal heart rates can be obtained by cantering horses on a 6% grade at 490 m/min as from galloping on the flat at 700 m/min.

To see a detailed report like the one above, go to the KER ClockIt website and log in to your account. Once you are signed in, you can view your detailed sessions under the “Sessions” tab.