Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
School of Animal Rural and Environmental Science, Nottingham Trent University, Southwell, UK.
Equine Vet J. 2022 Sep;54(5):885-894. doi: 10.1111/evj.13522. Epub 2021 Oct 19.
Eventing is an equestrian sport that tests athletes' and horses' skill over three phases: dressage, jumping and cross-country. Falls during the cross-country phase can have very serious outcomes up to and including death for both horse and athlete. Therefore, understanding risk factors associated with falls is essential for improving equine and human welfare.
To provide descriptive statistics and identify risk factors at the horse-, athlete- and course-level affecting horses competing in Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) events worldwide.
Retrospective cohort study.
Data collected by the FEI of every horse start worldwide in all international (CI), championship (CH), Olympics (OG) and World Equestrian Games (WEG) competitions between January 2008 and December 2018 were analysed. Descriptive statistics followed by univariable logistic regression to identify risk factor candidates for inclusion in the final multivariable logistic regression model. Models were constructed stepwise using a bi-directional process and assessed using the Akaike information criterion.
Factors associated with increased risk of falls and or unseated rider included: higher event levels, longer course distances, more starters at cross-country phase and less experienced horses and athletes.
The data set is geographically comprehensive but covers only FEI competitions, not National Federation events, that is not every competition started by every individual horse. Nor does the data set include any prior veterinary information or data on training or schooling.
This is the first large-scale epidemiological study of cross-country falls in FEI eventing. Results suggest that a potential risk profile can be constructed for each horse-athlete combination prior to entering a given competition, based on individual histories and course-level factors. This could lead to interventions that can reduce the number of falls, thus protecting equine and human welfare.
三项赛是一项考验运动员和马匹在三个阶段（盛装舞步、跳跃和越野）的技能的马术运动。越野赛段的落马可能会对马匹和运动员造成非常严重的后果，甚至导致死亡。因此，了解与落马相关的风险因素对于提高马匹和人类的福利至关重要。
提供描述性统计数据，并确定影响在全球国际马术联合会（FEI）赛事中参赛的马匹的马匹、运动员和赛道级别的风险因素。
回顾性队列研究。
分析了 FEI 在 2008 年 1 月至 2018 年 12 月期间收集的全球所有国际（CI）、锦标赛（CH）、奥运会（OG）和世界马术运动会（WEG）比赛中每匹马的起跑数据。采用描述性统计方法，然后进行单变量逻辑回归，以确定候选风险因素纳入最终多变量逻辑回归模型。模型采用双向过程逐步构建，并使用 Akaike 信息准则进行评估。
与落马和/或落马骑手风险增加相关的因素包括：更高的赛事级别、更长的赛道距离、更多的越野赛段起跑和经验较少的马匹和运动员。
数据集在地理上是全面的，但仅涵盖 FEI 比赛，不包括国家联合会的比赛，即不是每匹马都参加了每一场比赛。该数据集也不包括任何先前的兽医信息或关于训练或练习的数据。
这是第一项关于 FEI 三项赛越野落马的大规模流行病学研究。结果表明，基于个体历史和赛道级别因素，可以为每个马匹-运动员组合在参加特定比赛之前构建潜在的风险概况。这可能会导致采取干预措施，从而减少落马的次数，从而保护马匹和人类的福利。
