Overtraining syndrome in sport horses causes physical fatigue and psychological exhaustion that compromises welfare and performance, requiring recognition and appropriate recovery management.
Overtraining welfare in horses reflects the challenge of managing the boundary between productive training stress and harmful physiological and psychological exhaustion. Horses experiencing overtraining are in a sustained negative welfare state characterized by physical fatigue, altered mood, and loss of the willingness to engage with work that characterizes horses in good welfare. The difficulty is that early overtraining signs are subtle and can be confused with training resistance or laziness, leading trainers to increase rather than decrease training load. Heart rate variability monitoring offers an objective measure of recovery status that can guide training decisions. Cultural factors in competitive equestrian sport that value stoicism and intensive preparation can normalize overtraining, making welfare advocacy that challenges these norms important for sport horse welfare.