2/10/2024 0 Comments Leg injuries in horses![]() Most sports horses start their education as 4 year olds and it takes about 2 years to develop the structural strength required to withstand and recover from strenuous competition without a detrimental effect. It is important to remember that a horse is not mature until it is at least 6 years old, age restrictions for horses competing under FEI rules are in place to ensure only horses with suitable maturity can partake in certain competitions, the age restrictions vary depending on the discipline and the level of competition. While older horses suffer from wear and tear that is often related to how hard they have worked, how carefully they have been looked after, or sometimes the age they started hard work. One of the first factors to consider is age. How many of us can do that? It’s no wonder that there are injuries. When landing over a 1.20m fence the initial leg bears an individual weight of 2050kg, about 4 x the weight of the average horse. When Landing from a Fence – The Horse will Initially take all his weight on one leg. In general concussion related injuries tend to occur in the limbs of the horse, by the nature of its evolution it is standing on a single digit equivalent to our middle finger. The horse tends to naturally carry 60% of its weight on the front legs and when galloping and landing over a fence takes the full force initially on a single leg. While ground that is too yielding brings its own issues and is also problematic. This force is increased when the ground surface is not yielding to the foot fall. Excessive concussion is something we strive to minimise.Ĭoncussion is defined as the force that is sent vertically up the leg as a result of the hoof striking the ground. Poor conformation, bad shoeing and inadequate preliminary work in the fittening of a horse can be contributory to concussion related issues. It is usually negatively associated with its effect on your horse’s legs and linked with jumping and cantering or galloping on hard ground during the summer months but it can also occur with excessive road work in trot and hard arena surfaces. We tend to find Ireland is not prone to extensive periods of drought and hard ground, so you may think concussion is not be a huge issue for your horse but concussion can be caused by more than just hard ground due to lack of rain and its effect is the same.
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