Is a single force plate adequate for stabilographic analysis in horses?
1Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center, College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. claytonh@cvm.msu.edu
Equine Veterinary Journal
|September 2, 2011
Summary
Force plate data from a horse's forelimbs or hindlimbs can accurately represent total body postural balance. Forelimb data showed higher correlations, suggesting it's preferable for assessing balance in horses.
Area of Science:
- Equine biomechanics
- Veterinary orthopedics
- Animal locomotion analysis
Background:
- Postural balance in horses is assessed using stabilographic variables from force plate data.
- Centre of pressure (COP) movements in the horizontal plane quantify balance.
- Standard force plates often cannot accommodate all four limbs of a horse.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if stabilographic data from either forelimbs or hindlimbs are representative of total body data.
- To evaluate the utility of partial limb data for postural balance assessment in horses.
Main Methods:
- Collected stabilographic data (960 Hz) from 17 sound horses using separate forelimb and hindlimb force plates.
- Varied horse size, recording duration (15-60s), and visual conditions (sighted/blindfolded) to enhance data variability.
- Analyzed data using correlation matrices and forward stepwise regression.
Main Results:
- Total body stabilographic variables strongly correlated with both forelimb and hindlimb data.
- Forelimb data exhibited higher correlation coefficients compared to hindlimb data.
- Forward stepwise regression favored forelimb data for 15 out of 16 variables.
Conclusions:
- Ground reaction force data from a pair of limbs, particularly the forelimbs, can effectively measure variables representing total body postural balance in sound horses.
- Stabilographic data from either forelimbs or hindlimbs may aid in detecting and quantifying postural balance deficits in ataxic horses.
