Retrospective trainer-reported incidence and predictors of health and training-related problems in standardbred racehorses

Information on the incidence of injury, illness, and unexplained loss of athletic performance of 2345 Standardbred racehorses was gathered from a telephone survey of 177 trainers during the 1996-1997 season. Trainer-reported incidence of infection and illness (18%) was higher than the incidence of musculoskeletal problems (10%) or unexplained athletic performance loss (6%). Older horses (>5 years) were more likely to develop musculoskeletal problems (odds ratio [OR] = 3.9; confidence interval [CI] = 1.8-8.2) and performance loss (OR = 2.3, CI = 1.1-5.2) than 2-year-old horses. Horses were more likely to suffer musculoskeletal problems if fast-worked on tracks or surfaces with no banking compared with those fast-worked on tracks with banking similar to commercial racetracks (OR = 4.6, CI = 2.0-9.9). Horses given no warm-up before high-intensity exercise were more likely to suffer a musculoskeletal problem than horses given a light warm-up of 1 to 9 minutes (OR = 2.5, CI = 1.5-4.4). Horses trained for more than 164 min·wk–1 were more likely to suffer musculoskeletal problems (OR = 1.7, CI = 1.1-2.8) and athletic performance loss (OR = 2.5, CI = 1.4-4.4) than horses trained for shorter periods. Horses given a moderate weekly exercise duration (132-148 min·wk–1) had the lowest rates of infection and illness, but short (114-131 min·wk–1) or very long (>164 min·wk–1) weekly exercise duration increased the risk of horses suffering infection and illness

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