Health Articles

Strategic Layoffs
Performance Medicine - Jun 18th, 02
Many equestrian sports have an annual cycle in which a competition season alternates with an off-season. Even in the sports that continue on a year-round basis, most trainers schedule a brea...

Protect Horses from Exhaustion and Overheating
Performance Medicine - Jun 18th, 02
A horse asked to perform strenuous exercise often is pushed to the limits of his body's mechanisms to recover. In most cases, these mechanisms allow the horse to finish the exercise with no ...

A Humane Use of the Equine Athlete
Performance Medicine - Jun 18th, 02
Introduction: Similar to the increase in number of marathons and ultramarathons for human athletes, equine endurance competitions in distances of 50-100 miles have become increasingly popular...

Conformation Myths and Misunderstandings
Performance Medicine - Jun 18th, 02
INTRODUCTION Most competition horses get too unsound, not too old. In theory, it is easier for a well-conformed horse to stay sound. However, many horses with conformation defects are able to...

Lameness and Performance in the Sport Horse: Show Jumping
Performance Medicine - Jun 18th, 02
THE SPORT The athletic demands placed upon the elite show jumper are huge. It must be able to jump large fences with precision, accuracy, and care, sometimes at speed. It must be supp...

The Most Important Three Inches in Your Horse’s Career
Performance Medicine - Jun 18th, 02
Introduction What makes one footing better than another? Is it possible to find a surface that maximizes your horse’s athletic potential while at the same time protects him from injury? And...

Lameness and Poor Performance in the Sport Horse: Eventing
Performance Medicine - Jun 18th, 02
Eventing (horse trials) combines dressage, show jumping, and cross-country, together with steeplechase and roads and tracks phases in a three-day event. The event horse must primarily ...

Strategies to Maximize Performance in Your Horse
Performance Medicine - Feb 23rd, 05
Maintaining a performance or pleasure horse represents a substantial investment of time and money. People sometimes put their efforts towards purchase of a nice horse and a lovely truck and tr...

Drug Piracy and How it Affects Your Performance Horse
Performance Medicine - Mar 21st, 05
Information updated January 2009     For those of us in the equine industry, whether we are owners, trainers, grooms, riders, judges or veterinarians, our guiding principle should...