Equine Guelph and researcher Dr. Judith Koenig would like to thank the Equine Foundation of Canada, for their recent donation to support horse welfare. EFC has contributed $16,000, 80% of the purchase, of an Equinosis Lameness Locator® which will benefit both research projects and education by providing an objective method of determining equine limb lameness.
Nancy Kavanagh, EFC rep., presents check to Equine Guelph director, Gayle Ecker
The use of the lameness locator means immediate availability of a kinematic lameness assessment for the practitioner/researcher and together with the clinical ability of the clinician, this will improve accuracy.
© 2015 by Henrietta Coole
This equipment is better than the naked eye, because it samples motion data transmitted by sensors and algorithms at a very high frequency (200x). The human eye is capable of (10x to 20x). The Equinosis Lameness Locator® enables quantifiable diagnostic technology that removes the bias that frequently accompanies subjective evaluation.
When a horse is trotted, the data is transmitted wirelessly in real time. This means immediate availability of a kinematic lameness assessment for the practitioner/researcher. Together with the clinical ability of the clinician, this will improve accuracy.
Currently, evaluating lameness or improvement of lameness after treatment is performed with the naked eye. For research, this requires at least two specialists to evaluating the horses in an attempt to reach agreement. Koenig says, "This equipment will give us hardcore data together with our lameness evaluation, thus making lameness evaluation more objective."
The new Equinosis Lameness Locator® will also help students to learn about kinematics, see how it is applied, while learning to evaluate a lameness.
Equine Guelph is the horse owners' and care givers' Centre at the University of Guelph. It is a unique partnership dedicated to the health and well-being of horses, supported and overseen by equine industry groups. Equine Guelph is the epicentre for academia, industry and government - for the good of the equine industry as a whole. For further information, visit www.EquineGuelph.ca.
Story by: Jackie Bellamy-Zions