Document type : scientific review published in the Equine Veterinary Journal
Authors: Peter W. Physick-Sheard, Joann Slack
Preview: The horse is seen as an athlete, and that athleticism most often involves a human rider. This relationship plus our propensity to compete form the context for our response when a cardiovascular disorder is suspected, and with the characteristic variation found in rhythm and sound on examination of a horse's heart, this is a circumstance that occurs often.1-3 Detection of any variation in what is perceived to be normal immediately raises spectra of falling value, poor performance, collapse, death and compromised rider safety.4 The equine clinician most often has a more sanguine view of findings, but a veterinarian's reassurances do not always eliminate fears, tempered as they must be, by qualifying statements, just in case. The best antidote is certainty, but this is something never to be achieved with biological systems. Variation is in fact the norm; in the absence of variation we would need neither statisticians nor economists. Our confidence in interpretation of observations can be enhanced with evidence, however, and this requires research, and lots of it.
