Keeping Derby Horses Healthy by Measuring Stress to Support Performance and Welfare
The Kentucky Derby, “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports,” is 1¼ miles of chaos, thunder, and pageantry. But beneath the roses and big hats is the quiet, relentless work of keeping those horses from falling apart. Recent advancements in veterinary biomarker science have revolutionized how animal healthcare is utilized in this sport. Understanding how horses respond to stress, and how they recover from it, is now central to keeping them fast, healthy, and upright.
Why Monitor Stress in Horses?
Cortisol is the primary stress hormone in horses. It’s like a check engine light for mammals. When something’s wrong, it ramps up long before you see signs of stress in behavior or performance. In horses, consistently high cortisol levels can compromise immunity, wreck digestion, and complicate training. Researchers and vets measure cortisol in blood, saliva, and feces to understand how a horse is handling travel, competition, and recovery.
Access to this kind of data is a game-changer. If cortisol is still high hours after a workout or trailer ride, it’s no longer just a bad day. This could be a sign that the horse needs more rest, a shift in feed, or a lighter training plan. It gives the trainers deep science-backed insights to make critical decisions that could directly impact race-day performance.
Trailering Is No Joke
Travel stress hits horses harder than you might think. In one study, a 15-minute trailer ride more than doubled blood cortisol, jumping from 142.8 to 254.5 nmol/L. Even non-invasive measures like fecal cortisol showed clear spikes the next day. The researchers said the results made a strong case for rethinking transport routines. This could mean longer rest breaks, better trailer conditions, or simply traveling at night when it’s cooler.
Foals Feel It, Too
Stress doesn’t begin at the starting gate. Weaning is one of the most disruptive events in a foal’s early life. In one study, cortisol metabolites in feces doubled on the day of weaning and remained elevated for a full week. Behaviorally, the weaned foals lay down more and moved less.
For breeders, this data provides a window into how each foal is handling the change. If cortisol stays high, weaning might need to be slower or more gradual. Maybe the foal needs extra turnout time or another young horse as a companion. Hormone tracking can tell you when a horse isn’t adjusting well, even if it otherwise seems okay.
Training, Inflammation, and Recovery
Diet plays an important role in physical exertion and recovery. In a treadmill study on horses, researchers found a consistent, sharp spike in cortisol immediately after a controlled exercise session. This spike occurred regardless of the animals’ diets. However, horses on a specific supplement regimen recovered faster and showed lower inflammation, measured by serum amyloid A, six hours later.
The solution isn’t about banning hard workouts but rather using cortisol and inflammatory markers to gauge and optimize recovery.
The Quiet Science That Keeps Horses Sound
You won’t see cortisol in the paddock, but you’ll see the effects of it. In how a horse loads onto the trailer. In how it warms up. In how it digs deep for the final stretch. Hormone data helps trainers and researchers stay ahead of stress before it slows the horse down. When the gates open at Churchill Downs, what you’re watching is far from just luck or breeding. It’s science, working quietly behind the scenes.
Learn how Arbor Assays’ Cortisol ELISA kit can support your equine health research and lead you to the winner’s circle.
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