Ancient origins of horsemanship.

Archaeological evidence of horse domestication dates from 4000 BC in the Eurasian Steppes of the Ukraine. There, Indo-Europeans rode horses and herded them for meat. This had profound social and economic consequences which led to the development of nomadic equestrian cultures.

Muscular adaptation of horses during intensive training and detraining.

Five horses were studied during a five-week regime of controlled intensive daily training on a high-speed treadmill followed by five weeks of detraining. Muscle biopsies were taken weekly from both the right and left gluteus muscle and from the sternocephalicus muscle before, and at the end of, the training and detraining periods. Histochemical and biochemical analyses of the sternocephalicus muscle showed no metabolic adaptation with either training or detraining.

Early development of gait asymmetries in trotting standardbred colts.

Ten trotting Standardbred colts were recorded by high-speed cinematography at the ages of eight, 12 and 18 months. The horses were trotting on a treadmill operating at 4.0 m/secs.

An energetic basis of equine performance.

Although different physiological and behavioural attributes are needed for various types of equine competition, successful racing depends primarily on the animal's metabolic ability to convert chemical energy to mechanical energy--the function of muscle. Components of these energetic processes include the rate, efficiency and interaction of aerobic and anaerobic metabolism in muscle and the supply and utilisation of fuel. In anaerobic work like racing, fatigue processes may be largely regarded as a function of an intramuscular fuel (phosphogen) depletion, despite the fact that substrates are supplied via the circulation.

Strengthening of human quadriceps muscles by cutaneous electrical stimulation.

The effectiveness of cutaneous electrical stimulation as a muscle-strengthening technique was evaluated by comparison with an isometric regime. Sixteen normal healthy subjects were randomly assigned to either an electrical group or an isometric group. A pretest was given of maximum voluntary force in the quadriceps (extensor) muscles, measured with a cable tensiometer.