Overtraining the thoroughbred racehorse

Almost all trainers will have experienced a problem with individual horses, groups of horses, or sometimes even a whole barn where performance drops off for no immediately apparent reason. Blood tests, lameness examinations, clinical examinations, etc. reveal no apparent cause. The drop in performance is often put down to the fact the horse has “gone stale,” become “sour” or “gone over the top.” In human medicine we talk about chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) which can affect both athletes and non-athletes, but in athletes we may be more likely to talk about overtraining.

By Dr David Marlin

First Published (02 February 2011 - Issue Number: 19)