Do developmental orthopaedic disorders influence future jumping performances in Warmblood stallions?

The research article investigates the relationship between developmental orthopaedic diseases (DOD) and future jumping performance in Warmblood horses.

Research Objective and Method

• The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between the presence of DOD lesions in Warmblood stallions and their performance in jumping competitions. Radiographic data and performance scores of these horses were used in this investigation.
• The researchers collected records of Warmblood stallions that had both radiographic data and performance data available. The performance in show jumping competitions was evaluated using scores derived from the horse’s final ranking in each competition.
• The researchers carried out an analysis of the relationship between the findings from radiographic images and the performance scores and number of performances using a linear regression model.

Results and Analysis

• The horses data used in this study were narrowed down to 215 that met the criterion set by the researchers. Upon comparison of performance and number of performances, no difference was observed for horses which had DOD lesions, indifferent of the joint location when compared with controls.
• Significantly lower number of performances was recorded for horses with osteochondral fragments often referred to as OCD located at the dorsal aspect of the sagittal ridge of the metacarpo/metatarsophalangeal bone.
• No significant difference was found in performance or number of performances between horses with DOD lesions of the tarsocrural joint and the control.
• Notably, horses with osteochondrosis (a type of OCD) of the lateral trochlear ridge of the femur demonstrated both significantly lower performance scores and numbers of performances compared with controls.

Conclusions

• The findings demonstrated that the level and site of DOD within a joint can have an impact on a horse’s performance. In particular, osteochondral fragments in the femoropatellar joint and in the dorsal aspect of the sagittal ridge of the metacarpo/metatarsophalangeal joint resulted in a lower performance.
• Fragmentation in the tarsocrural joint, however, showed no impact on performance. The study reveals The future ability of Warmblood jumping horses may be limited due to OCD in the femoropatellar joint and to some extent the metacarpo/metatarsophalangeal joint.