143 Incidence of soft tissue injury and hours of daily paddock turnout in non-elite performance horses

Abstract

Soft tissue injury, to any tendon or ligament, accounts for 13–18% of horses that require rest and time off and is responsible for 33% of training losses and wastage in sport horses of all disciplines. Among others, 2 contributing factors to soft tissue injury in horses are an increase in acute workload and fitness level. It has been suggested that baseline fitness is inversely related to soft tissue injury and that pasture turnout can help maintain fitness in the horse. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between paddock turnout hours and incidence of soft tissue injury in non-elite performance horses. This retrospective cohort study examined 146 riding horses with a median age of 17 years that were housed at the Centenary University Equestrian Center from 2014 to 2020. All soft tissue injuries were diagnosed by the resident veterinarian, confirmed by ultrasound (91.5%), MRI (1.7%), or as a diagnosis of elimination (6.8%). A comparison was made between the incidence of soft tissue injury in 2 groups of horses, one that consistently received more than 12 consecutive hours of turnout per 24-h period and the other that was turned out less than 12 h per 24-h period. Soft tissue injuries were only included after a horse had adjusted to any new turnout schedule or group for 30 d. The chi-squared test of homogeneity of proportions was used to compare the proportion of soft tissue injuries for the 2 groups of horses. Forty-five (50.6%) of the 89 horses that were turned out for less than 12 h experienced a soft tissue injury as compared with 14 (24.6%) of the 57 horses that were turned out for 12 or more hours. At the 0.05 significance level, the difference in these proportions, 0.26, was statistically significant (χ2(1) = 9.755, P = 0.002). This suggests that there is an inverse relationship between the length of paddock turnout and the risk of soft tissue injury in nonelite horses.