The art and start of soundness

Few will disagree that one of the most challenging aspects of horse ownership and training is the art of trying to keep the animal sound. From the economic burden to the time consumed, many once promising horses lose out on their chance to reach their full potential due to injury.

If we look back in retrospect to our own horses and try to pinpoint at what stage in an individual’s career the animal went from being sound and fit for function, to unsound, it would be rather difficult to determine.

The exception to this would be a career-ending injury due to a direct trauma.

So why is the start line of this industry-plaguing topic so blurry? Unfortunately, the answer is often closer to home than we may like to admit.

Routine injuries

A vast majority of the routine injuries seen on a day-to-day basis in the equine world, both sport horse and thoroughbred, are caused by humans. Consider newly born foals. If left to their own devices, how many would suffer from musculoskeletal (MSK) lameness throughout their lives? Not many.

Similar to humans, the average Joe or Joanne who enjoys the occasional stroll in the evenings is far less likely to suffer a cruciate ligament injury or torn hamstring than an elite athlete.

That’s a pretty obvious statement, but it still doesn’t shed much light on how we can help decrease the number of horses whose careers are cut short due to MSK injury.

Stronger side

Instead of looking in retrospect at these cases, what if we start at the beginning of an animal’s life? Perhaps that way a pattern may become clearer on the trajectory of its training. Horses naturally, like humans, tend to have a stronger side (left- or right-handedness). When it comes to horses, we as humans tend to reinforce this stronger side by handling them, most of the time, from the near side. However, handedness is not the cause of a lame horse.

The next step is the introduction of equipment, ie breaking tack. I am not putting a timeframe on this necessarily as it varies greatly depending on the discipline within the industry.

Most of us will have some general understanding of the impact of saddle fit on a horse’s way of going but before we even consider a saddle, the impact of breaking tack is rarely taken into account.

Again, a roller that is a little too tight or slips too far back is not going to be a career definitive aspect for a horse but keep it in mind.

The following stages in a horse’s life are possibly some of the most important.

The stage when they begin their athletic careers and start training (again age varies greatly here depending on discipline). It is at this point, that the longevity of a horse’s career can be moulded. To liken this stage to a human athlete’s career, this would be the point in time where the focus is on strength and conditioning training, as well as their specific discipline.

Strength work

For example, in the early stages of a marathon training plan, running is only one of the many aspects of training. The plan will also include strength work, stretching programmes, deloading periods etc, and will be tailored to the individual.

However, if we look at this stage in a horse’s career their training plans tend to be far more mundane.

Sound horse

Take a National Hunt thoroughbred for example. From breaking, they will generally go point-to-pointing to start their career or into pre-training, before hopefully one day being good enough for full training and to make the track. The pattern here? Generally, the work variety does not change, although load may increase.

What do I mean by this? The manner in which the horse is worked rarely varies from being exercised on the gallops at different speeds and distances.

Now take a dressage or show jumper. From one stage of their career to the next they are generally schooled in an arena to perfect their specific discipline.

While there is some truth in the old saying practice makes perfect, repetitive uniform methods do not make for a sound horse. Why?

Failing to vary a horse’s exercise programme causes repetitive load of the same structures, which ultimately leads to failure of these structures.

We are the cause of so many of these issues, and where we cannot be the fix, we can prevent them

So, to answer our previous questions, can we pinpoint an exact starting time in an individual career where the unsoundness begins? Not exactly, but we can say why. The majority of career-ending injuries are not due to direct trauma, they are repetitive strain injuries.

In black and white that is when too much load and stress has been placed and a structure overtime, without adequate healing time, the structure fails - ending that horse’s athletic life.

So, to go back to the beginning, we as humans are extremely influential in the fate of a horse’s soundness. From handedness to asymmetries due to equipment, to overload during exercise programmes.

However, there is light at the end of this tunnel. We are the cause of so many of these issues, and where we cannot be the fix, we can prevent them. How? By ensuring from the early days we handle our horses evenly; we do not cause gait asymmetries due to the equipment we use.

And last but not least, varying the exercise programme to include strength and conditioning training, deloading and good recovery periods.