Where the Arena Meets the Brain
Equestrian sport carries one of the highest rates of head injury among athletic disciplines — surpassing contact sports like football and rugby, with studies reporting that 20–48% of all horse-related injuries involve the head. The majority of injured riders are women. Yet this population has remained almost entirely absent from neuromodulation research, leaving a significant and growing clinical need unaddressed. Dr. Sara Gould, director of the equestrian sports medicine program at UF Health, is working to change that.
Funded by the Zabara Foundation, Dr. Gould’s research examines the intersection of concussion, depression, and treatment using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in female equestrian athletes — studying both the neural mechanisms linking mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) to mental health challenges and the potential of precision neuromodulation to treat them. The work reflects a conviction at the heart of the Zabara Foundation’s mission: that advancing targeted therapies requires research that reflects who is actually being treated. As the field of brain stimulation becomes more precise, the populations it studies must follow. UF Health story