Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) eventing: fence‐level risk factors for falls during the cross‐country phase (2008‐2018)

Bennet, ED, Cameron‐Whytock, H ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0760-2584 and Parkin, TDH, 2022. Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) eventing: fence‐level risk factors for falls during the cross‐country phase (2008‐2018). Equine Veterinary Journal. ISSN 0425-1644

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Abstract

Background: The equestrian discipline of eventing tests athletes’ and horses’ skill over three phases: dressage, jumping, and cross-country. Falls during cross-country can be particularly serious and result in serious or fatal injury for both horse and athlete. Cross-country course and fence design are crucial contributory factors to safety.

Objectives: To provide descriptive statistics and identify fence-level risk factors for horses competing in Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) events worldwide.

Study design: Retrospective cohort study.

Methods: Data were collected for every horse start worldwide in all international (CI), championship (CH), Olympics (OG), and World Equestrian Games (WEG) eventing competitions between January 2008 and December 2018 and univariable logistic regression, followed by multivariable logistic regression were applied. The final model was built in a stepwise bi-directional process, with each step assessed by the Akaike information criterion.

Results: Risk factors were identified at fence level covering aspects of fence design and course design. Ten fence types were at increased odds of a fall occurring compared to square spread fences, and seven types were at reduced odds. Fences with an approach downhill (odds ratio 1.35, 95% confidence interval 1.19-1.52), with landing into water (OR 1.82, CI 1.62-2.01), frangible devices (OR 1.28, CI 1.15-1.41), and later elements of combined obstacles (OR 1.33 CI 1.25-1.42 for the second element, OR 1.21 CI 1.10-1.32 for later elements) were associated with increased risk of falls occurring.

Main limitations: Although the data set covers every international competition worldwide, it does not include national-level competitions.

Conclusions: It is recommended that the most challenging fences are placed near the beginning of the course, and not in downhill or water settings. The complexity of individual elements in combined fences should be reduced. Adopting evidence-based course design is a crucial intervention for reducing the incidence of horse falls and associated serious and fatal injuries to horse and human athletes.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Equine Veterinary Journal
Creators:	Bennet, E.D., Cameron‐Whytock, H. and Parkin, T.D.H.
Publisher:	Wiley
Date:	16 July 2022
ISSN:	0425-1644
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1111/evj.13863 DOI 1579121 Other
Rights:	This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	04 Aug 2022 09:44
Last Modified:	16 Jul 2023 03:00
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/46826

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