Tendon injuries, and the common occurrence of repeat injury afterwards, is one of the biggest welfare issues in horse racing. It affects not only the equine athlete’s career and quality of life, but the careers of the many people surrounding it, as well as investor confidence in the greater scheme of the industry. Whether we love horses or see them as an exciting sporting venture, we all want the same thing: healthy athletes that can perform at the top of their game for the longest lifespan possible.
Employment diagram indicating the ramifications in industry of our athlete’s wellbeing.
The incidence of tendon injuries is approximately 30% among thoroughbred racehorses in training, mostly in the SDFT (superficial digital flexor tendon) of the forelimbs.
Racehorses are usually retired after tendinitis because as many as 70% will not be able to return to their previous level of performance, and more than 66% of them will have a recurrence of injury.
We can all agree that these are shocking statistics! Especially when the human statistics are so much better… why is that?
Why can we not manage our racehorses in such a way that we achieve better recovery rates, or – even better – why can’t we reduce the injury rate to begin with by preempting it? A new company combining several state-of-the-art technologies might change these percentages forever.
Horse Chestnut, a successful racehorse that had to be retired prematurely to stud after injury cut his career short, and Elusive Silva, a horse that miraculously recovered from a double tendon injury under equinetendon.com protocol to continue a successful career.
WELCOME TO A TWO PART SERIES BY EQUINETENDON.COM