Translational Medicine in Human & Equine Sport

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2026 issue of EquiManagement. Sign up here for a FREE subscription to EquiManagement’s quarterly digital or print magazine and any special issues.

Want to repair a track star’s tendon injury? Look to recent research in sport horse tendon lesions. Hope to predict cardiac strain in an eventing horse? Check out the latest scientific practice in human athlete heart monitoring. Human sports medicine often moves quickly because of funding and large research infrastructures, leading to rapid progress. Veterinary sports medicine, meanwhile, tends to benefit from faster regulatory pathways, meaning a quicker road to clinical applications.  Alone, each field can hit gaps and frustration. But increasingly, scientists in those fields are realizing the benefits of teaming up—sharing their studies and knowledge in ways that draw from the best of both worlds to benefit athletes of both species, says Lauren ­Schnabel, DVM, PhD, DACVS, DACVSMR, professor of equine orthopedic surgery at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, in Raleigh.