Pro-active Management of the Equine Athlete
The main reason for the loss of horses is lameness and musculoskeletal injuries (muscle-tendon-bone-etc). Regardless of the disipline, the most horses are active in the sport for about 4 years. There seems to be a link between an early start of training and a longer sports career. In human athletes a multidisciplinary team (with several people from different disiplines) is often working togheter for optimal performace of the athlete. In equestrian sport, this is rarely done.
Previous studies have shown that most of the horses stop due to musculoskeletal problems, followed by lung problems and problems in the digestive system. There is little communication between the different disiplines. Little is known about how we can train horses optimally because research is challenging. The main reason fort this is that there are many disiplines and many different interests that are not comparable.
There are various reasons why injuries in horses arise. The precise nature and duration of injuries and whether there is permanent dropout often remains unclear because there is no good frame of reference. Next to that different disiplines don't communicate with eachother very well.
There is little clarity on how a horse can be trained in the best way. Many injuries are related to overloading, and there are indications that starting the training early (even as a foal) results in a longer sport participation. This may sound like a contradiction, but starting with early exercise may support a proactive mechanism that improves tissue tolerance to exercise load and reduces injury risk.
Expert opinion by Sophie Delemarre
Managing sporthorses is no longer the role of an individual veterinarian. The trend is that clinics do no longer fractionate care, but integrate te role of the farrier, physiotherapist, saddlemaker and clinician to address not just the symptoms but to take more of a holistically and proactively approach in the management of sporthorses.
> From: Rogers et al., Animals 2 (2012) 640-655. All rights reserved to Massey University. Click here for the online summary.
