Tendon injuries are among the most welfare-limiting conditions in performance horses, and regenerative therapies including stem cells and PRP are improving outcomes but require careful application.
Tendon injuries in horses represent a major welfare burden because they cause both acute pain at the time of injury and the chronic challenge of prolonged rehabilitation with uncertain outcomes. Traditional healing produces mechanically inferior scar tissue that re-injures at higher rates, meaning many horses face repeated cycles of injury, pain, and recovery. Regenerative therapies aim to restore normal tissue organization rather than simply achieving structural repair. Early evidence supports improved healing quality with both PRP and stem cell approaches, though large-scale randomized trials remain limited. From a welfare perspective, the most important benefit of these therapies may be reducing re-injury rates — fewer horses experiencing repeated acute injury events represents meaningful welfare improvement across the population.