Vad påverkar en travhästs hållbarhet?
en undersökning med fokus på djurskyddsaspekten gällande träningsrutiner och behandlingsmetoder för träningsrelaterade skador bland svenska travtränare
The harness racing industry has roots hundreds of years back in time and breeders through time have changed the horses to a mix of potential, harmony and speed. Breeding has changed the conditions and created a horse that perform better and better. A risk with high-performance horses is that injuries related to training and racing may occur more often. In training and racing situations, lameness is the most common injury. There are many factors affecting the occurrence of injuries and lameness of the trotter horses, such as how the horse is trained and raced, the surface condition of the racetrack, banking and angle of the curves of the racetrack and how fast injuries are discovered and treated. In this study with the purpose of the questionnaire study was to see if Swedish trotting trainers use preventive routines in the training and racing of their horses but also to see which the most common treatments for injuries are. The questionnaire study was available at the Swedish Trotting Association?s webpage, it was anonymous and 194 trainers chose to answer it. The majority of the trainers choose crushed sand track to train on and fast-speed trotting as their choice of training. The result shows that intraarticular injections are the most common treatment for lameness. Almost half of the trainers who answered the questionnaire use it as the first treatment for lame horses.The results ascertain that the trainers believe that intraarticular injection are a method that effective, but is it a method that is sustainable for the horse. The results also show that the trainers do not undertake any preventive veterinary health check-ups of the horses but they are diligent with preventive methods like massage, acupuncture etc. To understand the choice of methods of treatment and the choice of training methods, there is a need for more exhaustive studies concerning the motives for the several alternatives of treatments, training and track surfaces.