Frost clings to trotters' muzzles as they race in cold weather

Meeting held at Vermo despite temperatures down to -16°C

print this

By Leena Mäenpää-Wirtz
     
      Trotters are running around a racetrack in the icy weather with their coats steaming in the cold.
      Their breathing becomes a visible trail of steam. Only a handful of people venture out to watch the evening's starts in front of the glass-fronted grandstand.
      Grooms and trainers are trembling with cold in their quilted outfits at the paddock at the Vermo harness racing track in Espoo, while the horses themselves can endure the cold fairly well.
     
The horses waiting at the paddock for their turn have been carefully covered up to their ears. Only the eyes and the muzzle of some horses can be seen from below the rug, the neck piece, and the hood.
      Lars-Erik Stenberg is a second-generation professional trainer from Vihti, near Espoo.
      In his view, a snow-rich winter has more pros than cons.
      The wintry road conditions have offered horses splendid training possibilities, as the running tracks have remained firm.
      During a training round, the speed of a horse is adjusted according to the cold weather. He has not noticed that a sharp frost could harm any horse.
      ”If the weather is very cold, everybody tends to spare their horses, and at the finish line they will see who the winner eventually is”, Stenberg notes.
      In the cold wintry weather, the airways of the horses in Stenberg’s stables have been in a better condition than in the summertime, when allergies can pester the animals.
     
This winter, the unusually chilly weather has made many trainers consider whether or not they should let their horses take part in races.
      Even though a horse had been signed up for a start a week earlier, the trainer is allowed to pull the trotter out of the race.
      Racehorse trainer Minna Moilanen, the wife of driver Ari Moilanen, regards -15 degrees Celsius as the racing limit for the horses she trains.
      She has heard of some warning examples.
      ”Some horses have been racing in far too cold weather, and afterwards they have started bleeding into their lungs. Small blood vessels cannot endure frost, and after they have burst a few times, scar tissue will be formed in the lungs and their game is over”, Moilanen notes.
      The horses are kept moving until they go to a warm-up or a start.
      ”A rug can also be kept on the horse even after the start”, Moilanen says.
     
Last weekend, races were cancelled because of the Arctic weather in Joensuu and Kuopio.
      If the temperature is -15°C to -20°C in coastal areas, it is recommended that the races are cancelled. Further inland, the corresponding limit is -20°C to -25°C.
      ”In my opinion the limits could be even lower [in other words warmer]. The frost is good for neither people nor horses”, Moilanen adds.
     
At Vermo, the drivers have been working with red cheeks and with their faces frozen stiff.
      ”The icy wind is the worst, but one can cope with it by covering the face”, noted driver Hannu-Pekka Korpi, who had five starts yesterday. At Vermo the sharp icy wind dropped the temperature down to -16°C.
      None of the horses from Stenberg and Moilanen’s stables raced yesterday evening.
      Many other well-known racehorse trainers and star drivers were also absent from the Vermo racetrack, as they were boycotting the races.
     
The boycott in question was a protest organised by Suomen Ravivalmentajat, an association representing professional trainers, against a decision made by Suomen Hippos last autumn.
      As part of their cost-cutting measures, Hippos decided last fall that the remuneration system relating to the training and testing of young horses would be frozen for the current year.
      The parties to the conflict reached a preliminary settlement already last Friday, but the Vermo trotting track was made a scapegoat in the dispute.
      When the star drivers were missing, mainly amateurs and trainees with their horses shared the cash prizes of EUR 44,690 for the nine races held.
     
     
BACKGROUND: Swedish survey says that frost does not pose a risk to the health of a racehorse
     
There appears to be very little research information about the impact of a frost on a racehorse’s health. In the 1980s, a test was carried out at the University of Uppsala during which five thoroughbred trotters were training for a week indoors in temperatures of 17 to -25 degrees Celsius. The aim of the study was to establish the impact of frosty weather on the performance and respiratory tracts of these horses.
     
Veterinarian Katja Hautala from Suomen Hippos says that the low temperature (-25°C) was not found to have any harmful influence on the performance of the horses. Neither was the cold weather found to have caused any damage to their airways.
     
Thanks to its long head and neck, a horse’s upper airways are long. One can assume that the cold air has enough time to warm up before it reaches the lungs, which is why a horse’s lungs are not particularly susceptible to cold air, Katja Hautala continues.
     
As an animal species, a horse can endure cold fairly well, which is why Finland’s frosty weather does not pose any health risk for a grown-up and well nourished horse, according to Hautala.
     
Letting horses take part in trotting races in temperatures of -20°C has not been found to be harmful to their health. However, pulling a horse out of a race could be sensible if the horse in question has previously suffered from any problems with its breathing.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 28.1.2010


Links:
  Suomen Hippos
  Vermo Trotting Track
  Vermo (in Finnish)
  Harness Racing (Trotting) (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat