Some racing fans hold their breath when a pack of horses
round the far turn to battle it out down the stretch of a racetrack. Will one stumble and collapse with a broken
leg? Tragedies over the years have made
us wary, and there is a lack of data to prove whether synthetic
surfaces are safer than dirt. Maybe
it's time to look in other directions – an obvious option is more stringent
drug and medication rules; however, injury detection tools are another choice.
Training Gets Hi-Tech
The days of using simple leather and steel in horse training
are gone, at least where there's a lot of money involved. Aluminum horse shoes for daisy-cutting
hunters, corrective surgery for young race horses, and the use of power
tools for equine dentistry are just some of the options available today. It even starts at breeding with embryo transfer, artificial
insemination, surrogates, and cloning.
Now, a new technology claims to help detect lameness by finding
asymmetry in one of the horse's gaits.
(A gait is a type of movement like a human's walk or run. Most horses have four types of gaits – the walk, trot, canter, and gallop.) The new technology, which uses an
accelerometer, can find problems in the trot.
Trot On!
The trot is a two-beat gait based on diagonal movement that
averages in speed at about eight miles per hour. When trotting, a hind leg and opposing front
leg move forward at the same time; then the other hind leg and opposing
(diagonal) front leg move forward at the same time. If you've ever ridden a horse you know this
is a bumpy gate that jostles you around until you either learn how to post
(rise and fall with every other movement) or become balanced enough to sit the
trot.
An accelerometer could be used to analyze the gait because
it is symmetrical in sound, healthy animals.
If the horse is being worked properly it should maintain a steady pace and
tempo. The diagnostic tool is "placed
at a horse's center of gravity – along the top of its neck above the shoulders". (This area is called the withers; it's the
bump at the end of the mane that the saddle sits behind.) In a Danish test, 12
healthy horses were diagnosed by accelerometer as having symmetrical gaits.
The accelerometer used for this testing was developed for
the cell phone industry using piezoelectric cantilevers – it's the same
technology that causes a response when you shake your device.
 Related Technologies
and Future Implications
This technology is nothing new:
If an accelerometer can accurately diagnose lameness better
than the human eye, it would certainly be a worthwhile investment for the
equine world. There are a few things to
think about, though:
- None of the current
technologies are designed for daily use – they're diagnostic tools. A human still has to decide to use them.
- Some horsemen may balk;
they have developed a good eye and feel for lameness detection over the
years and could resist the technology.
- Much racehorse training is
done at the "jog" – a slow canter – and the gallop. Can tools be developed to detect changes
here? Few breakdowns occur at the
trot.
Only time will tell how the accelerometers in lameness
detection will play out!
Resources:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-06/cell-phone-tech-could-diagnose-lameness-horses-earlier
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627645.100-phone-sensor-predicts-when-thoroughbreds-will-go-lame.html
http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/Veterinary+Equine/Evaluate-equine-lameness-objectively/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/645739?contextCategoryId=45686
http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/lameness-locator-brings-bit-more-objectivity-veterinary-medicine
http://www.mountainhorsemedical.com/services/22-mountain-horse-medical-center-LAMENESS-LOCATOR.html (images)
More about horses, racing, and equine injury diagnosis on
Animal Science:
Infrared
Thermography – Non-Invasive Diagnosis Option for Animals (Part 2)
World
Cup Athlete Disqualified for Hypersensitivity
Treating
Equine Cancer
Equestrian
Sports at the Olympic Games
The
Science of America's Deadliest Sport
Kentucky
Derby Tragedy
The
First Synthetic Breeders' Cup: Background & Controversy
| 
Re: Accelerating Equine Lameness Diagnosis
