ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the study of the athletic horse from ancient times to the present with a focus on the use of the horse as an animal model in classic physiological and medical experiments and later in experiments designed to elucidate what makes the horse a great athlete. All of these are historical and scientific basis for the modern field of Equine Exercise Physiology. Understanding the anatomy and physiology of the horse no doubt evolved with the human horse relationship. In the 1700's and 1800's, the horse was vital to everyday life and was being used for agriculture, for transportation of people and goods, and for war. The 1900's saw the continued use of the horse in physiological experiments of importance to current day exercise physiologists. Equine exercise physiology research grew in the in the 1970s and early 1980s paralleling the boom in human exercise physiology research.
