The Effect Of Lameness And Regional Anaesthesia On The Locomotion Of Horses

Reasons for performing study: navicular disease is an extremely common and intractable condition in horses. In order to prevent the disease, it is essential to understand the mechanism that causes it.

Objectives: to measure changes in peak vertical ground reaction force (GRF), stance duration,vertical impulse and timing of peak vertical GRF to determine whether peak vertical GRF is lower and delayed in the lame limb compared with the sound limb.

Methods: four horses were trotted over 8 piezo-electric force plates to test each variable over five conditions (N1, S+, S+PDNB, S-PDNB and N2).

Conclusions: Horses compensate for heel pain by reducing and delaying peak vertical GRF. Small changes in the horse's movement were recorded after application of a nerve block, suggesting that the nerve block itself has an effect on the forces exerted by the leg.

Potential relevance: This study provides basic data that can be used to determine the exact mechanism of navicular disease.