Lameness Evaluation of the Athletic Horse

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Key points

  • Lameness evaluation required keen clinical and observational skills.

  • Examination starts with a thorough physical examination including visual assessment at rest, conformation, and systemic palpation.

  • Gait evaluation is performed in a consistent manner over flat firm surfaces. Lunging, riding, and limb flexion tests may enhance detection of lameness.

  • Most lame horses do not exhibit pathognomonic gait characteristic gait abnormalities; therefore, accurate diagnosis requires comprehensive evaluation

History and physical examination

A thorough and logical lameness evaluation starts with obtaining the affected horse’s signalment. Age, sex, breed, and athletic use are basic vital facts that influence the predisposition of certain underlying lameness causes. For example, racehorses are prone to stress fractures and bucked shins due to the high-intensity training, whereas older seasoned show horses are prone to osteoarthritis and other degenerative musculoskeletal conditions. The horse’s comprehensive medical history and past

Gait evaluation

Next, and perhaps the most important step, evaluation of gait is performed while the horse is moving, allowing the clinician the opportunity to characterize the nature and severity of the gait abnormality. If fracture is suspected in the acute, severely lame horse, exercise should not be performed or catastrophic breakdown may result. Appropriate imaging is recommended. Key basic questions when performing gait evaluation include the following:

  • 1.

    Is the horse lame?

  • 2.

    What leg is lame?

  • 3.

    What is the

Lameness examination in the ridden horse

For some horses, lameness is only apparent when ridden, whereby certain movements, sport-specific gaits, changes of pace such as canter-to-trot transitions, can be reliably reproduced. In the lame riding horse, abnormal gait characteristics are highly variable, such as overt limping, reluctance to go forward, resistance in the bridle, bucking, and rearing.19 The addition of a rider’s weight causes increased limb loading20 affecting both sound and lame horses. Posting trot causes uneven loading

Flexion tests

Flexion tests have been an integral part of the gait assessment and are routinely used in the lameness examination. This longstanding clinical tool often highlights the presence of lameness. Although common practice, subjective flexion testing is not standardized, and evidence-based support for its specificity in lameness localization is lacking. In fact, only 1 of 57 horses had both a positive flexion test and lameness in the same limb.25 Numerous factors, such as variations in technique,

Diagnostic analgesia

With careful and comprehensive gait assessment, a skilled clinician may be able to formulate a reasonable list of potential pain sources during the lameness examination. However, in most horses, diagnostic analgesia will be required to truly authenticate and localize the lameness site. With few exceptions, gait abnormalities are not specific to injury type, and examination findings can be misleading. A horse with foot pain may be lame when trotting in a straight line and/or while lunging and/or

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    Disclosure Statement: The author does not have any relationship with a commercial company that has a direct financial interest in subject matter or materials discussed in article or with a company making a competing product.

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