Equine Sports Medicine

any athlete. Having a wellbalanced diet with adequate fibre for gut health and a safe amount of carbohydrates goes a long way for maintaining good body condition and foot health. Specific dietary needs for sport horses include attention to vitamin E and selenium supplementation targeting proper muscle function and recovery from exercise. Every day every horse should have 10 to 12 grams of glucosamine and 1500 IU of chondroitin. These are joint and cartilage support ingredients that are found in a variety of commercial products. Its best to consult your veterinarian or nutritionist on balancing a diet for your horse. Also important to note is caution on any specific regulations for competition consult your veterinarian regarding medications that may be included in supplements you are feeding.
Regular foot care This is essential for any horse and is especially important for the competing athlete. Your farrier who sees your horse regularly can give immediate feedback on foot conditions requiring special attention to stay in top shape. Depending on the discipline your horse may need specific types of shoes to allow him to compete at the highest potential.
Baseline diagnostics When things go badly it is very helpful to have a reference back to when things were all normal. This can include routine blood work screening preseason radiographs or ultrasound images of joints and tendons and a baseline evaluation of soundness videoed and documented. The amount and complexity of diagnostics will be determined based on budget the level of performance required and the skill set of the service provider helping you with your horse.
Specific Sports Medicine Services
After youve covered the basics of health care for your sport horse the really interesting sportsspecific types of services come in. Some of these can be done in a preventive manner when performance is going well while others are more applicable to treating specific conditions or injuries. 
Massage and body work This is becoming extremely mainstream for performance horses of all levels from weekend trail riding horses to grand prix jumpers. The focus of these treatments is identifying areas of muscular tension or restriction of movement and using massage stretching range of motion exercises and manipulation to help reduce that tension. By its definition this service is focused on the soft tissues of the body. There are many organizations offering training in equine massage and they may come with or without recognized certification by a recognized association. Make
sure you are comfortable with the approach to treatment and communicate with the caregiver regarding the therapy plan.
Chiropractic This type of work deals specifically with manipulating the bones and joints of the body. This has become absolutely mainstream in human medicine and is becoming increasingly popular for equine athletes. Manipulation of joints to mimic and achieve normal range of motion can be done anywhere on the body. Most commonly chiropractic therapy tends to be requested for neck spinal and pelvic area discomfort.