Endurance riding, an extremely strenuous form of horse riding, entailing a long-distance race of up to 160 km. Generally dominated by Arabian horses because of their stamina, some of the causes for disqualification among racing horses are lameness, dehydration, and metabolic disorders.

 Qatar Foundation entities, researchers from its Equine Veterinary Medical Center (EVMC), Al Shaqab’s endurance department, and Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) have come together to study the viability of “metabolomics”, a new technology used to assess the readiness of a horse before a race.

 According to Dr. Tatiana Vinardell, Head of Research and Education at EVMC, “Metabolomics is a relatively new technology used to measure hundreds of small molecules called metabolites, that are found in a biological sample. Metabolites are the products of constantly occurring and life-sustaining chemical reactions in all living organisms.”

 Monitoring and analyzing metabolites collected from their bloodstream will indicate factors related to genetics, diet, and lifestyle. Therefore, changes in these factors will be reflected in varying metabolite levels and act as biomarkers.

Prof. Karsten Suhre, Director of Bioinformatics Core at WCM-Q, inspired a pilot-study on equine metabolomics and expressed his desire on creating a “health and fitness passport” for athletes. He believes that horse endurance races present the ideal test environment to explore this technique.

Considering that every living organism has a metabolic fingerprint, “any changes in the health of the organism can be detected by comparing their metabolic state to their established baseline. If a considerable change is seen between the two, it can be indicative of a health problem that should be further investigated,” said Prof. Suhre.

Scientists have taken inspiration from this concept to identify biomarkers in competitive athletes, enabling them to improve overall performance among other insights. However, this fielding is lagging behind in the case of equines despite seeing the potential in humans. Although studies have been done on horses in Europe, it cannot be applied to Arab horses because of the difference in weather conditions.

Dr. Anna Halama, Assistant Professor of Research in Physiology and Biophysics at WCM-Q, said, “Our aim in this pilot study was to perform an in-depth investigation of the metabolic consequences of endurance riding, which may ultimately allow us to establish a metabolic performance profile for the horses that finished a race successfully. This profile can then be used as a reference to determine whether an animal is biochemically ready to participate in an endurance competition.”

A group of 62 horses, both pure Arabian and half-Arabian breeds, with experience in endurance riding were studied. Their blood samples were collected before and after the race in up to three different competitions and metabolic-based profiling was conducted using a technique called mass spectrometry, using a platform established in collaboration with the Antidoping Lab in Qatar. They measured 805 metabolites, out of which 437 showed significant alterations after the race.

In collaboration with the Antidoping Lab in Qatar, blood samples before and after the race in up to three different competitions were analyzed. The result indicated 437 significant alterations after the race when measuring 805 metabolites.

“We compared the metabolic profiles of the horses that were eliminated to those that finished the race and were able to identify six metabolites that could predict equine performance in endurance competitions. Some of the metabolites that we identified could also serve as performance indicators of the horses while others could be used to optimize diet to enhance performance,” said Dr. Halama.

Dr. Vinardel explained, “This isn’t just about predicting a horse’s performance in a race, it is also about animal welfare. If we can tell whether a horse is actually ready before subjecting it to a challenging activity, then why not.”

They now plan to repeat their study on a larger scale to confirm their results and also investigate the identified metabolites.

For more information on QF’s initiatives, please visit www.qf.org.qa

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