“The head shows you more than just what limb is involved in a lame horse,” began Kevin Keegan, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, associate professor of veterinary medicine and surgery at the University of Missouri, during his discussion of head movement with forelimb and hindlimb lameness at the 2005 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention held Dec. 3-7 in Seattle, Wash. He said that while numerous textbooks describe the “head nod” or “head bob” in which a horse’s head elevates when a lame forelimb bears weight, their definitions might be a little too simplistic, according to his experience with computerized motion analysis.

“Sometimes it is the downward movement and sometimes the upward movement of the head that is important for the detection of forelimb lameness,” Keegan explained. “Quite possibly, a more complete and discriminating evaluation of head movement can help us isolate lameness within the lame limb (when during the stride pain is most obvious).

“In a normal horse, you see downward movement of the head with weight bearing, then upward movement with pushoff,” he explained. “There is basically a double head nod, where the head moves up and down the same amount in each part of the stride