While the term sports medicine is of modern extraction, exercise physiology in humans and horses has been around for more than 100 years. During the decline of the use of work horses in the early to mid-20th Century, not much research was done. With the emergence and gaining popularity of horses as sport, recreation, and companion animals has come a resurgence of research into their abilities–and disabilities–as athletes. Since the 1970s, the amount of research on training, nutrition, medications, and problems of the various body parts and systems has grown tremendously around the world.

Because of this growing body of research, the people involved convened for the first time as a group in 1982 in Oxford, England. The International Conference on Equine Exercise Physiology (ICEEP) was formed, and it was determined that the researchers should meet every four years to share their expanding findings. Information on ICEEP can be found online at www.ICEEP.org.

Following are synopses of some of the presentations from the 2002 ICEEP conference held in Lexington, Ky., Sept. 22-26