Rehabilitation strategies for tendon injuries: translation from elite human athletes to the sport horse

It is generally considered better to prevent injuries rather than treat them once they occur. In order to do this, we must understand the aetiology of the disease and associated risk factors. Tendinopathy is one of those conditions where there is still some debate about the exact aetiology; however, several of the current theoretical models have many similarities. The most accepted human model is the ‘continuum model’ [1], although others exist [2,3]. The common feature of these models is that loading is excessive compared with that which allows the maintenance of tissue homeostasis [4]. This effectively leads to an active process of degenerative change involving pathways associated with inflammation [5,6] ...