Observation, Science, and Equine Lameness Diagnosis

Vets can glean crucial information by evaluating horses with performance issues in hand, on the longe, and under saddle.
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A significant number of pain-related gait abnormalities in horses are evident only when the horse is ridden, and are not apparent when the horse is hand-walked or longed. Even when these horses are ridden, the lameness might not be overt.

While there have been many recent technical advancements in the objective assessment of gait, these are sometimes of limited value for detection of bilaterally symmetrical alterations in gait that result in reduced performance such as generalized stiffness, lack of willingness to work, alteration in quality of movements such as lack of hind-limb engagement and impulsion, and alteration in the rider’s feel of the contact via the reins and bit to the horse’s mouth.

A rider often assumes that these problems are attributable to thoracolumbar region pain, because the problems are only manifest when the horse is ridden. When observed on the longe, such horses might lean into the circle—often more on one rein than the other—and show exaggerated contractions of the epaxial muscles. However, studies have shown that experimentally induced forelimb or hind-limb lameness could reduce range of motion of the thoracolumbosacral vertebral column. Radiographic examination can reveal impinging spinous processes, and this finding often results in an erroneous conclusion implicating thoracolumbar pain as the primary problem. Researchers at the Animal Health Trust, in Newmarket, U.K., have demonstrated that by using diagnostic analgesia to abolish overt or subclinical lameness, the rider often appreciates an increased range of motion of the horse’s back.

To investigate these clinical observations, the researchers studied normal horses subjectively free from lameness in hand, after flexion test, on the longe on both soft and firm surfaces and when ridden. The team objectively measured body lean on the longe and range of movement of the thoracolumbar region using inertial measurement units placed at predefined locations on the thoracolumbar and pelvic regions. These studies established normal ranges of motion for the thoracolumbosacral spine and demonstrated that sound horses have a small degree of bilaterally symmetrical body lean on the longe

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