Abstract
Simple SummaryThe athletic career of a horse is relatively short. Career length can be positively influenced by the trainer and the age at which the horse starts competition. There are opportunities for a team approach of health professionals and changes in management to improve functional/competition life. The ability to improve the tolerance of the tissue to exercise load via the introduction of early exercise, which reflects the horse’s evolutionary cursorial lifestyle, could provide a proactive mechanism to attenuate injury risk.Across many equestrian disciplines the median competition career of a horse is relatively short. One of the major reasons for short career length is musculoskeletal injury and a consistent variable is the trainer effect. There are significant opportunities within equestrian sport for a holistic approach to horse health to attenuate musculoskeletal injury. Proactive integration of care by health professionals could provide a mechanism to attenuate injury risk and the trainer effect. However, the limited data available on current exercise regimens for sport horses restricts interpretation of how management and exercise volume could be modified to reduce injury risk. Early exercise in the juvenile horse (i.e., pre weaning) has a positive effect on stimulating the musculoskeletal system and primes the horse for an athletic career. The early introduction to sport competition has also been identified to have a positive effect on career length. These data indicate that management systems reflecting the cursorial evolution of the horse may aid in attenuating loss from sport due to musculoskeletal injury.
Highlights
Across all equestrian disciplines, one of the most consistent and major reasons for the loss of animals is in relation to lameness and musculoskeletal injury [1,2,3]
The length of functional life is moderated by a number of variables, one of the most prominent being the positive association of an earlier start of competitive career with the longer resultant competition career length [6,8,9,10]
There have been a number of studies that have investigated the functional life of racing and sport horses [8,9,10,35,36,37]
Summary
One of the most consistent and major reasons for the loss of animals is in relation to lameness and musculoskeletal injury [1,2,3]. The limited functional career and the significant effort placed on maximizing orthopaedic health and competitiveness in (elite) equestrian sport has led to some authors and breed organizations identifying that durability, or career longevity, is a parameter that should be included within the breeding objective and actively selected for [6,7]. With our current understanding of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHAD) and the plasticity of tissue to stimuli early in life, the opportunity exists to alter susceptibility to injury at the tissue level This can be done early in the growth and development phase of the horse, prior to, or at the early stages of, the athletic career [10,11,13,18,19]. The objective of this review is to describe the production of the equine athlete in relation to the potential impact on musculoskeletal health, and the opportunity for proactive management to attenuate injury as a result of athletic use
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