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Injuries in non-horse-racing related activities: Is it time to focus on injury prevention outside of race-day?

Horse-racing is a hugely popular sport that is participated in worldwide. The horse-racing industry contributes 1.84 billion annually to the Irish economy and supports almost 29,000 Irish jobs. The risk of fall and subsequent injury while riding a horse is high, due to the characteristic high speeds, riding over irregular terrain, and the unique human-animal interaction, whereby the rider is sitting precariously 3m above the ground on a horse.However, while a jockey may spend limited hours a week in a race, they spend a significantly greater time period daily in non-racing related activities. Non-racing activities include exercise riding, riding work (simulated race-riding as part of working duties completed daily usually in the morning), schooling (practice races in preparation for racing) and yard-related activities. Jockey injury incidence outside of race-day is largely unknown in both the Irish and international context. The demanding and challenging lifestyle of a jockey can lead to additional pressures that encourage jockeys to avoid reporting injury that occurs outside race-day. To our knowledge, no research to date has examined injuries during non-race-day related activities in jockeys. This proposed project aims to. Establish the prevalence of injuries during non-racing related activities. Identify the aetiology, nature, severity and location of injuries.Classify the socioeconomic burden (financial costs, time loss from racing/work) and healthcare burden (imaging requirements, primary care and/or private practice consultations, presentation to hospitals etc) due to injury occurring in non-racing related activities in Ireland.