Sport Horse

An easy to digest guide to conditioning, injury prevention and management of sport horses, that has not been previously available. While most books on riding and equine training focuses on developing technical skills in horses and riders, this book concentrates on training physiology, conditioning and management, including strategies to prevent equine injury. It presents advice from some of the world's renowned top riders and equine vets on keeping the competition horse sound and motivated, supported by findings from scientific equine and sports research, and examples from the careers of top horses and riders. The aim is to pass on well substantiated advice on how as a rider one can help the horse to perform, and how to develop the horse's physical strength and fitness. AUTHOR: Dr Cecilia Lonnell graduated from veterinary college in Sweden in 1996. From 1998-2001 she was a research assistant at the Royal Veterinary College in London, conducting a field study of training and skeletal adaptation in Thoroughbred racehorses and in 2012 she presented a PhD titled Yard differences in Training, Management and Orthopedic Injury in Showjumping, Riding School and Thoroughbred Racehorses at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at Uppsala. She is co-author of the popular science FEI Equestrian Surfaces - A Guide and has covered six equestrian Olympics as an equestrian journalist.

“Sport Horse Soundness and Performance is an equestrian dream team in a book. Read, study, and learn.”

This is a book of infinite use to the rider who wants to improve their riding and horse management, for someone who is interested in providing the best for their horse. It is filled with good sense and offers plenty of references for research possibilities for the rider who is hungry for further knowledge.

-- Louise Broderick Horse and Pony Ireland
Written by an equine vet, there is input from some top GB riders like Carl, Pippa and John Whittaker through interviews which help to build a picture of how they train, what they do, how they cope with loss of performance and how they carefully build the horse's physical capabilities over many years to produce top sport horses that can continue to compete for as long as possible and be successful...

Dotted around the book are some universally relevant snippets of information and good advice from author and contributors: ride on a variety of surfaces, treat each horse as an individual, keep the horse happy and give him as good a life as possible, the most expensive horses don't always end up at the top, don't compete too much, feed carefully (especially supplements) and lots of other worthy information. -- Wendy Parsons Essex Rider

Dr Cecilia Lonnell graduated from veterinary college in Sweden in 1996. From 1998-2001 she was a research assistant at the Royal Veterinary College in London, conducting a field study of training and skeletal adaptation in Thoroughbred racehorses and in 2012 she presented a PhD titled Yard differences in Training, Management and Orthopedic Injury in Showjumping, Riding School and Thoroughbred Racehorses at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at Uppsala. She is co-author of the popular science FEI Equestrian Surfaces - A Guide and has covered six equestrian Olympics as an equestrian journalist.

There are many books and DVDs devoted to the technical training of horse and rider - how to perform movements correctly, clear obstacles, communicate efficiently, and in other ways attain the idealized image of an athletic partnership that results in competitive success. But this book is different: its focus is how the rider and trainer can make it easier for the horse to perform optimally. This includes improved understanding of what are reasonable expectations for a particular horse at a certain level of schooling, how to improve his fitness (including strength and conditioning), as well as background on how injuries may develop as a result of interaction between internal and external factors, such as genetics, conformation, management, and training. Relying on her veterinary background, in-depth research, and dozens of interviews with top riders and trainers from around the world - including Beezie Madden, Carl Hester, and Pippa Funnell, to name just a few - Lonnell provides guidelines for nurturing a happy, healthy equine athlete. With special focus on conscientious pacing when building the horse's physical capability over time, diversification of schooling practices, detail-oriented management and care, and putting the horse's needs above competitive ambition, readers are given a solid grasp of what it takes to truly reach the pinnacle of equestrian sport - and remain there - on a consistent basis. Throughout, gorgeous colour photographs of world-class horses and the people who work with them visually demonstrate the success of these methods.

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