Challenges encountered by Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) veterinarians in gait evaluation during FEI endurance competitions: an international survey

Abstract

Equine endurance competitions are long races over 1-2 days and horses can be eliminated in international competitions by FEI veterinarians for lameness at any time. Elimination rates due to lameness are high, affect the outcome of the races and commonly elicit objections to the decision from endurance competitors. The aims of this study were: (1) to assess the opinion of FEI official endurance veterinarians (OEVs) about the challenges in assessing lameness; (2) the occurrence of confrontations with riders when horses are eliminated from races due to lameness; (3) to assess OEVs’ thoughts about the adoption of user-friendly technology for objective gait evaluation to help detect, quantify and document lameness. All FEI OEVs were asked to complete a questionnaire. There were 157 responses, being most of the respondents from Europe (56.1%) or the Middle East (16.6%). For the majority of respondents, detection of lameness was considered challenging, even for experienced and well-trained veterinarians (57.3%). OEVs also considered it was often hard to classify horses as lame or sound (65.8%). Handlers not trotting the horse appropriately during gait evaluations was considered the most common problem compromising the evaluation (94.3%). Most OEVs (98.2%) responded that they had been confronted at least once by a rider or associate about the decision to eliminate a horse due to lameness. Most OEVs (71.3%) would be interested in having the support of user-friendly technology for objective gait evaluation (33.3% for all evaluations; 38.0% only when horses have more subtle gait abnormalities). The findings of this survey suggest that technology to objectively detect and quantify gait abnormalities during endurance competitions would be beneficial to support decisions made by OEVs when evaluating and or eliminating horses for lameness.