Gamma-orizanol and L-carnitine effect under body, performance and laboratory parameters in barrel racing competitors American quarter horses

Abstract

The American quarter horses are known by their uses in various activities, due to their high resistance and speed. The constant search for improvement in muscle mass gain and recovery in horses, mainly athletes, drives research for supplements without side effects. The objective of the present study was to evaluate clinical and laboratory parameters in these animals supplemented with gamma-orizanol and L-carnitine, before and after the execution of the barrel racing. These pure horses would receive 200 milliliters (ml) from the Energy Horse® supplement as a feed supply for animals in stable and oral feed for picket animals. The course of a race on an official track was performed in three moments of the experiment: day 0, day 30 and day 60 after treatment. Animals were clinically examined before and after exercise, in addition to heart rate, total part, total protein, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), creatine kinase (CK)

and glucose. Data were analyzed using the analysis of variance test (ANOVA), followed by multiple comparisons by the Tukey test, according to the statistical program PRISM (Graph Prism for Windows, version 6.01, GraphPad, USA). The level of significance adopted for all tests was 5% (p < 0.05). The results demonstrated to have a significant difference in the weight gain of the treated animals, a lower cardiac and respiratory rate, and a significant reduction in the execution time of a race with these animals in relation to the control group, especially 60 days after the use of the supplement with conditioners in bay. Therefore, the use of this supplement had a positive impact in their performance, comparing to those untreated animals, without any harm to their health. And since it had a strong negative influence (r = -0.89) between body weight gain and race time, it can be stated that the weight of the animals loaded with Energy Horse® energy supplementation, especially in animals in stable, is currently related to a better performance in barrel racing run time by American quarter horses.