Frequency of musculoskeletal injuries and risk factors associated with injuries incurred in Quarter Horses during races

Objective-To determine the frequency and anatomic location of musculoskelet al injuries incurred by Quarter Horses during races and to compare data fro m injured horses and matched control horses. Design-Matched case-control study. Animals-97 Quarter Horses that sustained a musculoskeletal injury during ra ces and 291 horses from the same races that were not injured. Procedure-Data examined included racing history, race-entrant characteristi cs, racing events determined by analysis Df videotapes of races, and, when performed, results of prerace physical inspections. Data for injured horses were compared with data for control horses, using conditional logistic reg ression. Results-Incidence of a catastrophic injury among Quarter Horses during race s was approximately 0.8/1,000 race starts,whereas incidence of musculoskele tal injury during racing was approximately 2.2/1,000 race starts. Odds of m usculoskeletal injury were approximately 8 times greater among horses asses sed to be at increased risk of injury on the basis of results of prerace ph ysical inspection than for horses not considered to be at increased risk of injury. Evidence was lacking that 2-year-old horses were at increased risk of injury or that sex influenced the risk of injury among Quarter Horses d uring;races. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-Incidence of racing injury among Quarter Horses appears to be lower than that observed among Thoroughbreds. Regulat ory veterinarians can identify horses at increased risk of injury on the ba sis of prerace physical inspection, indicating that these inspections could be used to reduce the risk of injury during races.