At Farr and Pursey Equine we understand that lamenesses are infrequently ‘black and white’. With the modern performance horse subtle lamenesses can make the difference between coming first or second, in addition even basic lameness evaluations can be complicated by unusual gaits, abnormal conformation and even muscle asymmetry.

Therefore with the help of a little technology we can improve our lameness assessment by trying to remove vet subjectivity or bias. So what do we mean by this? …….

In any lameness assessment we are looking for changes within the gait of the horse in both walk, trot and canter. This can be anything from a shortening of the stride to a decrease in the amount of time a limb contacts the ground. The time a horses limb spends in one position is a fraction of a second and subtle changes in this can be hard to see.

The advent of ‘internal sensors’ similar to the ones in your phone which measure acceleration, deceleration and its relative position in space can be used on horses limbs to detect variations within any pace.

There are several commercial ‘Gait analysis systems’ on the market, which all have their individual merits – of which we are trialling a few to see which can work best for you and your horse. All of these systems involve a significant investment from the practice, therefore it is important we choose the right one – a system that is easy to fit, can be used in multiple paces and gives us data to complement our clinical exam.

We feel this is a particularly important point to make. These systems are an addition to our lameness assessment and will never replace it altogether – it complements it. We are often asked to see lamenesses which are difficult to see and a history of “It just doesn’t feel right!” is  quite common. We hope that the addition of one of these systems to the practice can help us eliminate this frustrating aspect of lameness diagnosis.

One of the first systems we have trialled is a system called ‘GaitSmart Pegasus’. GaitSmart is a UK based company which provides gait analysis for the human market, in addition to international coverage of the equine market.

We were lucky enough to demo / trial the unit on several horses at a local yard to see if it could help differentiate a frustrating lameness, which had a changing blocking pattern to a very subtle lameness only seen on the soft lunge, when ridden.

The system proved very interesting and the companies write up of our day can be found on their Facebook Page.

We are set to trial several other systems in order to pick the right one for the practice and patients.

We wanted to keep you informed of our continuing efforts to provide the highest level of veterinary care for your horse. Also, more importantly to have that service delivered at your yard rather than referring your horse.