Specialist Equine Sports Medicine Practice Waterloo, Brabant Wallon, Belgium
Presentation Description / Summary: Advances in wearable electrocardiographic (ECG) technology have transformed the ability to monitor equine athletes under real-world training and competition conditions, providing critical insights into exercise-induced arrhythmias that may not be detectable at rest. This session will explore the clinical application of repeated exercising ECG recordings, with emphasis on their value in the detection, characterization, and management of intermittent rhythm disturbances in horses with and without underlying cardiac disease. New data will be presented linking arrhythmias and ectopy observed during intense exercise with subsequent race performance, as well as emerging evidence on the feasibility and usefulness of heart rate variability analysis as a practical, non-invasive tool to evaluate equine fitness. Together, these findings underscore the diagnostic and prognostic utility of wearable cardiac monitoring in equine practice, informing risk assessment, fitness-to-train decisions, and the long-term management of horses with suspected or confirmed cardiac disease.
Learning Objectives:
Describe the advantages and limitations of wearable ECG monitoring for the detection and characterization of arrhythmias during exercise in equine athletes.
Discuss the relationship between exercise-induced arrhythmias, heart rate variability, and subsequent performance outcomes in racehorses.
Apply repeated exercising ECG recordings to risk assessment and clinical decision-making in horses with suspected or confirmed cardiac disease.
