Comparison of visual lameness scores to gait asymmetry in racing Thoroughbreds during trot in‐hand

Researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Royal Veterinary College have investigated the degree of movement asymmetry that experienced veterinarians classify as lameness in the horse.

Six veterinarians, with long experience of working with thoroughbred horses, assessed the pattern of movement of 25 thoroughbred horses in training based on video films. The symmetry of the horses' movement patterns had been recorded with a sensor-based system during the recording and the objective measurement values ​​were compared with the veterinarians' visual assessment (lameness scale of 0-5).

For none of the 25 horses were the six veterinarians in complete agreement whether the horse was unstable or which leg the horse was lame from. The consistency was generally low, and the assessment sometimes varied between 0-3 degree halts for an individual horse. The degree of asymmetry was on average higher when the veterinarians classified the thoroughbred horses as lame than the limit values ​​that are currently used as a recommendation in case studies with motion analysis systems.

This study is a collaboration between the Royal Veterinary College, UK och SLU, Sweden, with financing from the Horserace Betting Levy Board.

Link to publication

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/eve.12914?af=R

Reference

T. Pfau, M. F. Sepulveda Caviedes, R. McCarthy, L. Cheetham, B. Forbes and M. Rhodin (2018) Comparison of visual lameness scores to gait asymmetry in racing Thoroughbreds during trot in-hand. Equine Veterinary Education, doi: 10.1111/eve.12914