Page 156 - The Veterinary Care of the Horse

trot when the lame limb contacts the ground. For example, if the horse is very lame on its left

hind, it may lower its head as the left hind contacts the ground. Since the horse moves its
VetBooks.ir limbs in diagonal pairs at trot, if viewed only from the front, this could easily be mistaken for
a left forelimb lameness.

Symmetry of gluteal rise

Viewed from behind, the gluteal muscles on either side of the horse’s rump should rise and
fall equally. With hind limb lameness, the hip on the painful side may rise more than the hip

on the sound side. This is known as a ‘hip hike’. In these cases the pelvis lifts when the lame
leg contacts the ground and sinks when the sound leg hits the ground. However, in other

cases of hind limb lameness, the pelvis appears lower and drops more on the lame side
because of the horse’s reluctance to push off on the lame limb.

Symmetry of gait

The horse will be viewed from all angles to check if the strides are of the same length. A
horse with slight lameness may only show a very subtle shortening of stride of the lame limb.
However, horses with bilateral forelimb or hind limb pain may shorten the stride of both

limbs equally so the gait becomes short and choppy but remains symmetrical. A loss of
impulsion is a common finding with bilateral hind limb lameness. On other occasions,

particularly with subtle hind limb lameness, the horse will not demonstrate obvious lameness
but alter its gait in order to reduce the level of discomfort experienced. For example, a horse

with sacroiliac pain will often swing the hind limb on the affected side outwards in a circular
fashion as it brings the leg forward to avoid flexing the limb. Another example is the horse

deviating his body away from the lame hind limb and moving on three tracks.

Alteration in the height of the foot flight arc

A horse that is bilaterally lame behind may not look obviously lame but shorten its stride and
reduce the height of its foot flight arc. This may be heard as toe dragging on a hard surface or

seen as the surface being scuffed in a school.

Foot placement

The horse should place its feet squarely on the ground with each stride. This alters with poor

hoof balance or if the horse’s foot is being placed in such a way as to alleviate pain in a
particular part of the foot or higher up the limb.