The aim of the present study was to investigate the response to physical exercise of some ocular physiological variables (ocular temperature and intraocular pressure) in horses performing a jumping course in the morning (a.m.) or in the afternoon hours (p.m.), before and after the exercise, in correlation with the rectal temperature. Data collection was carried out on 14 clinical healthy Italian saddle horses. All horses were trained from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. and from 19:00 to 20:00 p.m. according to a specific training program. Ocular temperature (OT), rectal temperature (RT) and intraocular pressure (IOP) were determined. Statistical analysis showed no differences between the results for the left and the right eyes. The application of two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a statistically significant effect of time (before vs. after) on IOP (p = 0.0001). RT and OT were statistically influenced by time of day and by experimental conditions (a.m. vs. p.m.) (p = 0.0001). Bland-Altman (B-A) testing showed an agreement between the values of RT and OT. Our results showed a correlation between increased body temperatures and IOP variations during exercise, so they can probably be considered indicators of athletic horses' physical fitness during exercise.
Keywords: exercise; horses; intraocular pressure; ocular temperature; rectal temperature.