Risk Factors for Elimination During Endurance Rides Examined

Researchers examined which factors–such as lameness–prompt endurance horses’ elimination from competition.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

Endurance rides covering distances from 40 to 160 kilometers in a 24-hour period are grueling tasks for both horse and rider. So it’s not surprising to learn that up to 60% of horses can be eliminated for health reasons during the competition. A team of U.S. researchers recently set out to determine which factors, at the start and in the first or second half of rides, contribute to endurance horses’ elimination from competition.

"To our knowledge, this is the first study to look at a number of risk factors in a large group of horses over multiple rides to identify reasons that horses fail during competition," relayed lead author Langdon Fielding, DVM, Dipl. ACVECC, of Loomis Basin Equine Medical Center, in Loomis, Calif. "This data can help riders and veterinarians improve the completion rate and perhaps even prevent illness and injuries."

Fielding and colleagues collected rider cards (which contain detailed information about the animal) from 3,493 horses and collaborating veterinary information regarding the physical examinations during 2007 American Endurance Ride Conference sanctioned rides

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Stacey Oke, MSc, DVM, is a practicing veterinarian and freelance medical writer and editor. She is interested in both large and small animals, as well as complementary and alternative medicine. Since 2005, she’s worked as a research consultant for nutritional supplement companies, assisted physicians and veterinarians in publishing research articles and textbooks, and written for a number of educational magazines and websites.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
276 votes · 276 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!