Following on... Gait Analysis... is it worth it, or a con?

[wench]

Just wondering if anyone has had it done, and if so, was it any use.

Someone relatively local to me does it, and as I am having a few problems with my horse, thought it may be a useful tool to indicate potential problem areas now, or compare to horse later on down the line.

Any thoughts welcome.

 

[Lou_Lou123]

Having studied biomechanics and gait analysis as part of my degree, I think you have to he careful who you use and what you take from it. Some systems are less accurate than others and in my opinion the person doing the analysis needs to be well qualified for it to be worth it. If I remember correctly the error of margin in some systems is larger than the difference they claim to show, but I am happy to be corrected if I am remembering the research wrong!

 

[Lou_Lou123]

Just reread that and sounds very negative, can't edit on (not so) smart phone however I think it can be a very useful tool if used correctly to pick up gait abnormalities and as a normal to compare to at a later date.

 

[SmallSteps]

In the human field it is an essential tool. I used to work in clinical gait analysis (mostly pre-surgical planning for cerebral palsy) and you wouldn't be able to plan multi-level surgery without it.

In the horse field we have a long way to go but it has become an accurate and essential research tool, with a lot of quality published evidence behind it. However for some reason the commercially available services are often not at all on a par with those used for research.

Here's a plug for a snippet from onw of my own H&H articles which helps you know more about gait analysis and what qualifications to look out for in soeone offering a gait analysis service (biomechanist): http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/features/5125/314728.html