Injury Risk for Horses Increases with Hard Footing

From Wikipedia

Researchers in France studied the association of firmness of track footing and musculoskeletal injuries on French trotters training for harness racing.   Results showed  that racing over harder surfaces resulted in significantly more injury and trauma to the horses.

"Of the 18 moderate and severe lesions, 15 were identified in horses of the hard-track group, and 10 of those were in forelimbs. Moderate to severe tendinopathy of the superficial digital flexor tendon of the forelimb developed in 3 of the 6 horses of the hard-track group but none of the horses of the soft-track group. Metatarsal condyle injuries were more frequent in horses of the hard-track group than horses of the soft-track group. Severe lesions were identified only in left limbs. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results indicated that track surface firmness is a risk factor for musculoskeletal injuries in horses trained for harness racing."


Current FEIF rules call for a "firm" surface for the track used in breeding assessments and sports competitions for Icelandic horses.  I have heard some informal discussion on how to measure the firmness of the track but I could not find any official information as to whether FEIF plans to measure the hardness of the footing in the future to mitigate potential injury. 

Source:  "Effect of track surface firmness on the development of musculoskeletal injuries in French Trotters during four months of harness race training", American Journal of Veterinary Research, November 2017

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29076363