Study on the elimination causes of horses in the national endurance ridings during 2013-2014

Backgrounds: In endurance riding, the exercitation ability of horses during long periods and distances wre evaluated. Objectives: investigating the causes of elimination among participated horses in the 2013-2014 national endurance rides. Methods: by being present at four competition courses. Results: out of 176 horses, 74 (%42) were eliminated and the data of 23 horses (%13) as a control group was collected. Lameness was the highest cause of elimination, with 29 (%39.2) horses. High heart rate was in the second stage, by assigning 13 (%17.55) horses. Elimination because of illegal cases had been the next major reason, which allocated up to 12 horses (%16.2). Metabolic disorders, flutter, excessive exhaustion and dehydration, had 7(%9.5), 10(%13.5), 1(%1.35) and 2(%2.7) cases respectively. Significant correlation was found between the gender and the occurrence of flutter, so that 8 of 10 cases (%80) of the flutter cases were among males. As the distance was rising, the number of elimination because of metabolic disorders had increased too, that means there was significant relationship between these recent parameters. There were significant correlations between preservation method and metabolic disorders and dehydration. As the league progressed, the number of total elimination was enhancing too, but the difference between elimination because of illegal reasons and flutter was noticeable; each of them had opposite process. Significantly, both serum calcium concentration (mg/dl) means of all eliminated blood samples (10.10±0.37) and the control group (11.19±0.17) have been higher than serum calcium concentration of the group eliminated due to flutter (9.41±0.34) (P<0.05). Significantly, the mean of serum total protein concentration (g/dl) of the group which was eliminated because of the flutter incidence (7.87±0.11) has been higher than all eliminated samples (7.75±0.11) and the control group (6.61±0.16). Conclusions: The results of the indurance competition in this research in our country are alike with international data in other countries.