Re: Re: Runners and horses

["Robyn Levash" <questarabians@inreach.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>
To: Ridecamp <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2001 10:19 PM
Subject: RC: Re: Runners and horses


> At 10:23 PM 1/25/01, Robyn wrote:
> >I use the 10K and 20K as speed or faster training workouts to improve
> >my  pace in the marathon.
>
> What might the equivalent distances be for equines?
>
> Does a 10K run = 25 mile LD?  Would that make a marathon = 50 miler, an
> ultra-marathon = to a multi-day?
>
 I think this is a very hard question to answer.
Here is an interesting article called the  "The Ultimate Athlete"  out of
Trail Blazer 1995 :
"Regular exercise can improve the pumping efficiency of nearly every heart,
but olympic athletes who have strengthened their cardiovascular systems
through long hours of training have taken the extraordinary abilities of the
heart to the limit. Those seemingly super-human contenders, with their
amazing abilities to exert the systems of the body, appear to be "the
ultimate athletes of all time". And among humans they are. But if we compare
the same physiologic systems of other remarkable athletes in the animal
kingdom, it is clear the winner of the "Ultimate" All-Around Athlete award
would actually be the horse.
    The horse may not be the swiftest animal over short distances, or the
strongest by sheer comparison. But it is able of accomplishing more than any
other mammal of comparable size. It has the speed to cover a mile and a
quarter in less than 90 seconds, the endurance to run over 100 miles twice
as fast as the best conditioned human.
The horse's cardiac abilities are remarkable. It's cardiac output ( the
amount of blood pumped per minute) can increase by a factor of ten times,
from 27 liters of blood per minute at rest to nearly 325 liters per minute
at a full gallop. Highly trained Olympic-caliber athletes can only increase
this pumping rate by approximately two times, from 5 liters of blood per
minute at rest to 10 liters during peak activity. The horse's cardiac
abilities are notably exceptional, partly because the equine heart is about
the size of a soccer ball. Compare this to the human heart, which is
slightly larger than a person's own clentched fist.
    When the cardiac output increases in an animal, its body's ability to
consume oxygen also increases. An Olympic athlete performing at top speed
can increase oxygen consumption by about 10 times the amount needed at rest;
the average horse can increase their average comsumption by an amazing
factor of 35 times. The breathing rate of a horse of a horse can elevate
from only 12 breaths per minute at rest to around 125 breaths per minute at
maximum effort. It's body accomplishes this feat by changing 1600 liters of
air per minute in it's lungs at a full gallop. This equates to over 400
GALLONS of air exchange per minute. By contrast, a well trained human
athlete breathes 12 to 14 times er minute at rest and increases to 30 times
per minute at full effort with an air exchange of about 35 liters per
minute. The horse's incredible amount of oxygen intake is possible not only
because horses have huge lungs with extraordinary internal surface area, but
because it's abdominal organs act as pistonswith a front to back motion that
fills and empties the chest of air when the horse gallops. This is why a
horse's breathing rate is always "in sync" with it's stride when galloping.
    Not only does the amount of blood pumped and the amount of air exchanged
dramatically increase during during exercise in the horse, but equine
athletes, like only a few other animals, can increase the oxygen carrying
capacity of their blood during exercise to approximately double what a
human's body can deliver at peak performance.
    Quite clearly, the horse is a marvel of physiological engineering.
Although our Olympians are to be admires for their superior athletic
abilities among humans, we must recognize that the horse's physiologic
systems are superior to even the most highly trained human's systems. The
horse, in fact, has the physical adaptationsthat may make it the ultimate
athlete among all the mammals."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
> Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>