Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Standardbred horses are usually used for horse racing. In Sweden, there are about 18 000 Standardbred trotters in training. It is important that they are sound when racing and therefore it is interesting to look at their movement symmetry, which one of the most common ways to evaluate lame horses. With a Lameness Locator you can analyse a horse’s movement in a simple way. The system collects data with sensors on the horse’s head, right front foot and the pelvis. The aim with this study was to measure 10 Standardbred trotters and their movement symmetry with a lameness locator in different situations. They were measured with the lameness locator system in hand, ridden and driven in different tempos before and after training. The hypothesis was that their movement symmetry would change and that it would increase as speed increases. In the lameness locator system, we could see difference between the tests on each individual horse. But only a few tests were significant, for example the movement asymmetry increased with increased speed.