Objective Gait Analysis using EquiGait©

Orthopaedics is one of the largest areas of activity in equine veterinary medicine. This is due to the fact that even the slightest gait abnormality in a horse leads to its loss of use for sport or leisure riding. Traditionally, gait analysis and lameness diagnosis has been practised by the expert eye of the veterinarian. This leads to significant heterogeneity in lameness work-ups, as it is always subjective. Particularly in low-grade lameness, gait abnormalities, poor performance of the horse or simply an altered feeling of the rider, the scatter range of subjective gait analysis is wide.

Recently, Pferdeklinik Hochmoor has acquired a system which analyses the movement pattern of the horse using gyroscopic sensor technology. It is able to detect slightest asymmetries in gait pattern which are invisible to the human eye. Particularly the comparison of the base lameness pattern with the gait pattern after diagnostic anaesthesia leads to ground-breaking objective results. For the objective work-up of low-grade lameness, objective gait analysis is going to develop into the gold standard in equine veterinary medicine.

The analysis of back problems is a further potential area of usage. At Pferdeklinik Hochmoor, we not only employ the 5-sensor system which is used for lameness diagnosis but also the 8-sensor system. With this, the veterinary surgeons at Hochmoor aim to objectify the phenomenon of back pain in the horse for the first time. The EquiGait System measures the patients’ movements and converts the data into curves which provide a lot of detail about the patient to the experienced veterinarians at Pferdeklinik Hochmoor which in many cases would not be subjectively perceptible.