Influence of trotting and galloping exercises on erythrogram of andalusian horse stallions

Possible alterations in the erythrogram and in red blood cell volume indices were studied in ten Andalusian stallions subjected to two different types of exercise (trotting and galloping). For this purpose, the changes in these blood parameters were measured during resting, immediately after the exercise finished, and at 5, 10 and 30 min. of recovery.From the results it was deduced that the red blood cell count (RBC), the hematocrit value (PCV) and the concentration of hemoglobin (HB) increased significantly (p≤0.05) after finishing both types of exercise, with a greater increase with galloping. The return to baseline values was faster for trotting than for galloping. However, the RBC volume indices (mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration) did not undergo any significant changes with either type of exercise.