Table 1.
Overview of cohorts for total number of samples collected at each time point.
Table 2.
Cortisol concentrations of timecourse cohort.
Fig 1.
Salivary concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol at over an eight-hour period.
The boxplots indicate the median and interquartile range of salivary cortisol concentrations in nmol/L sampled every two hours from (n = 5) horses at rest between 08:00 and 16:00 (inclusive). Error bars represent the 5th and 95th percentiles while the dots represent the individual cortisol values for the horses in each group. Paired T-test; ** = P <0.05.
Table 3.
P-value results from paired T-tests showing differences between individual timepoints from timecourse experiment (n = 5).
Fig 2.
Salivary concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol among horses at rest when located at the nursery yard and after being moved to the main training yard.
The boxplots indicate the median and interquartile range of salivary cortisol concentrations in nmol/L sampled from horses at rest located at the nursery yard (RN; n = 66), within three days of entering the main training facility (RY_T1; n = 67), and after two-three weeks of being housed at the main training facility (RY_T2; n = 50). Error bars represent the 5th and 95th percentiles while the dots represent the individual cortisol values for the horses in each group. No significant differences detected (ANOVA F = 2.98, df = 2, P>0.05).
Table 4.
Cortisol concentrations of resting cohorts.
Fig 3.
Change in the salivary concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol between pre- and post-training for milestone training events.
The boxplots indicate the median and interquartile range of salivary cortisol concentrations in nmol/L pre- (T1) and post-training (T2) for first time being driven (FD; n = 6), first time being backed (FR; n = 34) and first time on the gallops (FG; n = 10). Error bars represent the 5th and 95th percentiles while the dots represent the individual cortisol values for the horses in each group. Paired t-test; ** = P<0.01, **** = P<0.0001.
Fig 4.
Cortisol concentrations (nmol/L) pre / post first time being driven for n = 6 Thoroughbred yearlings.
Each line represents a horse’s salivary cortisol response to the training event.
Table 5.
Cortisol concentrations for pre / post training event timepoints.
Fig 5.
Cortisol concentrations (nmol/L) pre / post first-backing by rider for n = 34 Thoroughbred yearlings.
Each line represents a horse’s salivary cortisol response to the training event.
Fig 6.
Cortisol concentrations (nmol/L) pre / post first time on gallops for n = 10 Thoroughbred yearlings.
Each line represents a horse’s salivary cortisol response to the training event.