Eventing is a difficult equestrian discipline for the horse and also the rider. This study is on horses and ponies that competed in the 2010 and 2011 European Championships. The European Championships is the highest level of eventing. Therefore, the level of fitness for these horses and ponies is extremely high, and many injuries can be caused because of it.
This study is done on a group of horses and ponies that share common characteristics, training, and amount of competitions that they participate in. There were 20 horses and 9 ponies used in this experiment. The fitness of each horse was taken at the beginning of the training and then taken again 2 weeks before the competition. In order for the results in this experiment to be correct all of the horses had to be ridden by their usual riders. The horses and ponies remained on their regular diet and each horse was kept in his or her own stall to avoid injury.
During training the horses had to follow a certain routine. It started out with a walking warm-up for 4 minutes. Then they would then start at a trot for another 4 minutes. After this they slowed down to a walk, and samples were taken. This was then repeated many times. After this they would then see how long it would take for the
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Out of the twenty horses only four horses ended up competing. Out of the nine ponies only three ended up competing. The result of this is that many horses and ponies were injured. For example, nine out of the sixteen horses were injured and four out of the six ponies were also injured. These injuries consisted of tendon injuries, fetlock-joint injury, and finally lameness. The other result of this is that they did not meet the criteria or were sold. The number of horses and ponies that did not meet the criteria were four horses and two ponies. Also the number of horses that were sold was