Equine Guelph, the horse owners’ and care givers’ center at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and Judith Koenig, DrVetMed, DVSc, from the university’s Ontario Veterinary College’s Department of Clinical Sciences, have received a donation for a lameness evaluation device from the Equine Foundation of Canada.

The Equine Foundation of Canada 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.

This equipment samples motion data transmitted by sensors and algorithms at a very high frequency. 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 is designed to improve diagnostic accuracy.

In most cases, veterinarians evaluate lameness or its improvement after treatment is with the naked eye. “This equipment will give us hardcore data together with our lameness evaluation, thus making lameness evaluation more objective,” Koenig said