University Level Medicine at a Practical Setting by Board Certified Specialists

A relatively new and very useful tool in sports medicine and performance improvement is digital gait analysis.

When working at the McPhail Equine Performance Center with Dr Hilary Clayton at MSU, Dr van Wessum got familiar with gait analysis. He now incorporates this research technique into the practice of sports medicine for a more clinical purpose.

With digital video, obtained with the horse in hand passing the camera position in walk, trot and canter we can make a standardized video of your horse’s gaits.

Even when ridden we can make a digital video.

After obtaining the video, we can digitally enhance and freeze the images and use specialized motion analysis software to calculate several joint angles, like fetlock and hock, and register stride lenghts per limb during motion. These data can show asymmetry in motion, not accessible for the human eye, to be recorded and analyzed.

Especially for the young(er) horse in training these data are a great tool to monitor the condition of your horse in training over time. By evaluating the gaits of your horse at a later stage after initial recording, we can give objective information about the training of your horse and observe changes in the range of motion of joints over time, which is a major factor in early detection of injuries and lameness.

After proper instruction, we can even use videos you made yourself to analyse the gaits in hand or under saddle, even when jumping!

We can incorporate the digital gait analysis with our performance check-ups.

Watch a slow motion video of Dr van Wessum With Luciano doing a nice rhythmic piaffe …and see how much more you can see just having slow motion video capacities…