Endurance riding in 2012: Too far too fast?

摘要

Endurance racing over distances between 120 and 160 km is a rapidly evolving equestrian discipline that relies on a uniquely high degree of veterinary input to protect horses from orthopaedic and metabolic injury. Equipped with a stethoscope and stopwatch, veterinarians make pragmatic field-based judgements on the metabolic and orthopaedic status of these high performance athletes in order to allow them to continue in the competition. There is, however, disquiet among some senior international endurance veterinarians as to whether the pace of change in the sport is adequately matched by the evolution of guidelines to protect horses. Moreover, although the current parameters on which metabolic assessments are based have developed with the sport these would benefit from further scientific validation to clarify whether they accurately reflect the metabolic status of the horse or whether more appropriate, easily measurable parameters exist.