Risk factors for and outcomes of noncatastrophic suspensory apparatus injury in Thoroughbred racehorses.

The research evaluates the influence of factors such as toe grabs, exercise intensity, and distance traveled on the risk of mild suspensory apparatus injury in Thoroughbred racehorses. It also contrasts the incidence of severe musculoskeletal injury in horses with and without this injury. The study found that horses with pre-existing mild suspensory apparatus injuries are more likely to develop severe muscle and ligament injuries.

Methodology

• The research was conducted as a nested case-control study and involved 219 Thoroughbred racehorses that were either racing or in race training.
• The horses were inspected weekly over a period of 90 days to determine the instance of suspensory ligament injury and to assess horseshoe characteristics.
• Additionally, the daily exercise speeds and distances for each horse were recorded.
• To compare exposure variables, conditional logistic regression was used wherein a comparison was made between incident case horses (n = 25) and selected control horses (125).
• A survival analysis was used to compare the time to severe musculoskeletal injury for horses both with and without sub-clinical to mild suspensory apparatus injury.

Results

• The research found that the variables that best fit the logistic model data included the horse’s age, the height of the toe grab of the horseshoe the week of the injury, and the weekly distance travelled by the horse the week before the injury.
• Even though the 95% confidence intervals for all odds ratios included 1, the chances for subclinical to mild suspensory apparatus injury seemed to rise due to the presence of a toe grab, a higher weekly distance, and aged 5 years and older.
• Horses that had a subclinical to mild suspensory apparatus injury were significantly more likely to experience a severe musculoskeletal injury or severe suspensory apparatus injury than horses that did not.

Conclusions

• The research concluded that pre-existing subclinical to mild suspensory apparatus injury is associated with the development of severe musculoskeletal and severe suspensory apparatus injuries.
• Changing training intensity and toe grab height for horses with subclinical to mild suspensory apparatus injury could reduce the incidence of severe musculoskeletal injury.