Impacts of Adiposity on Exercise Performance in Horses.
Authors: Pratt-Phillips Shannon, Munjizun Ahmad
Journal: Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
Summary
# Editorial Summary: Impacts of Adiposity on Exercise Performance in Horses Excess body weight in horses creates a double burden: animals carry the metabolic disease risk associated with obesity (insulin dysregulation, laminitis) whilst simultaneously performing exercise under increased mechanical load from their own adipose tissue. Pratt-Phillips and Ahmad (2023) examined how adiposity directly compromises exercise capacity and movement quality, drawing parallels to the well-established handicapping effects documented in racing thoroughbreds to demonstrate that surplus weight materially increases workload demands on athletic horses. Their findings confirmed that obesity degrades gait quality, accelerates heat stress, and promotes earlier-onset osteoarthritis development—with implications extending across competitive disciplines where animals carry excess condition. A particularly troubling aspect of their analysis concerns the aesthetic preferences of event judges, who often reward the heavier, more adipose phenotype in the competition ring, inadvertently incentivising owners to maintain horses in genuinely compromised states. For equine professionals involved in conditioning, farriery, veterinary care, and performance management, this research underscores that improving ridden horse welfare and athletic longevity requires actively working against these cultural pressures, ensuring clients understand that leaner, more functionally fit horses represent both better biosecurity against metabolic disease and superior athletic prospects.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Obese horses carry excess workload burden from adipose tissue alone, requiring adjusted training and conditioning protocols
- •Excess weight directly impacts gait mechanics and arthritis risk—body condition management is preventive orthopedic care
- •Challenge clients and competition judges on aesthetic preferences for adiposity; educate on performance and welfare costs of overweight athletic animals
Key Findings
- •Equine obesity increases risk of insulin dysregulation and laminitis
- •Excess body weight negatively affects gait quality and increases heat stress
- •Weight carriage in athletic horses increases workload and may hasten arthritis development
- •Competitive judging standards that favor adiposity create welfare concerns by rewarding metabolically at-risk animals