Research: Clayton and Bowker's “Effects of Barefoot Trimming on Hoof Morphology” Focuses on Incremental Heel Recovery

"Lights, cameras, heel angles..." Dr. Hilary Clayton uses the most advanced data collection and analysis systems in the world to track how horses move, grow, stand or even sway. Her electronics matched with Dr Robert Bowker's anatomy studies have placed Michigan State University at the epicenter of global hoof research. Since both Clayton and Bowker espouse the advantages of barefoot hoofcare, it's natural that a study with both names as authors would be published. (McPhail Center photo)

Hilary Clayton, BVMS, PhD, MRCVS has an office in the airy, bright new Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center, a state-of-the art equine sports and lameness facility at the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine. It’s chock full of video equipment, sensors, high-tech saddles that need to be tested or patented, sensors, force plates, remote controls and did I mentioin sensors? There’s a feeling that if something is going to affect a change in the future for horses, its route passes through this building. You also have to wonder what the electric bill is. Everything plugs in and has a stand-by red light glowing in the dark. The sensors are always ready.

Across the parking lot looms the main vet college building and large animal hospital. You go inside and enter a labyrinth of corridors. You descend stairs. Pipes rattle. You walk down more hallways. Turn some corners. And at some point, you stumble into a place that is the antithesis of Dr Clayton’s futuristic electronic world.

You’re facing a mountain of coffin bones. Over here are some old farrier books, and through the microscope, you think you see what the classic professor Robert Bowker PhD DVM wants you to see, that a coffin bone can and does have evidence of osteoporosis.

In this lab, things pile up. They get dusty. The information is layered like the strata of a carefully dug herb garden. Deep historical reference compost and intellectual top soil combine here to make ideas grow. Theories and what-ifs sprout like weeds after a summer shower.

On weekends, Dr. Clayton's interest in dressage makes her showing schedule a living laboratory: she competes her horses unshod. Until last year, her veteran horse MSU MAGIC J competed at the grand prix level. Up-and-coming MSU FANFARE, shown here, currently leads the US Dressage Federation standings in dressage freestyle at second level. Both horses were bred by the university and selected by Dr Clayton for their movement characteristics, not their conformation. She looked for horses with good movement, instead of horses that looked like they could move.

Hilary Clayton calibrates a set of sequential video cameras and hits the “on” switch. Robert Bowker digs a little deeper, reaching for a certain specimen he knows is under the pile. He turns an idea around and realizes he forgot to stop for lunch. And that was hours ago.

Both these laboratories and both these professors study the horse’s foot...at the same university. Both are at the top of the game, and in spite of their proximity, they couldn’t be approaching the hoof from more different perspectives.

And what are the odds that if two professors at the same university were studying the same structure, they’d share a common point of view? Or that they could possibly collaborate on a research project?

College professors are often, by nature, protective of their turf. Someone else on the same campus studying the same thing should be a threat. But Clayton and Bowker have managed to put their well-stocked heads together on research for several years.

This week the latest product of their thinking-alike-but-acting-differently collaboration is a paper on how hoof morphology is influenced by a specific method of barefoot trimming. The paper was published in the Australian Veterinary Journal.

For anyone not familiar with the term, morphology is the study of shape, form and structure in nature. We use the word “morph” colloquially as a verb. When you “morph” into something else, you are changing shape or form.

Foot diagram for trimming protocol. The paper does not contain the word "breakover".

Make no mistake: this paper is not going to tell you how to rehab a horse's hoof. It is, however, going to give more credence to the idea that a specific method of barefoot trimming can successfully achieve a precise goal. Because it did, in the hands of Clayton, Bowker et al.

To be clear, Dr. Clayton is listed as the lead author, with Bowker's name fourth. His inclusion in the study is evident in the discussion section, where information on sensory nerves in the foot is shared. His inclusion also means the study is destined for wide readership among his many followers.

The paper begins with an important sentence that bears repeating. Memorize it: "There is little scientific data describing the effects of any type of barefoot trim, particularly in horses that participate in regular exercise in a riding arena, or how such trimming may affect the overall conformation and health of the foot for an extended period of time."

The problem: horses with mildly underrun heels. The goal: palmar/plantar migration of the heel area of the hoof, increase in heel angle and support length, and an increase in solar angle of the coffin bone. The hypothesis: it's possible.

Michigan State University's McPhail Center is where horses, data and electronics come together.

And not only is it possible, it's possible to do it with a rasp, not a wedge pad or a horseshoe. It's possible to do it so that the inside structures are not disturbed by cranking the hoof capsule into alignment in one shoeing, running the risk of creating separations and flares and adding strain to repositioned ligaments and tendons.

The research project achieved its goals, but it is important to note that this was achieved not by removing shoes, but by applying a specific trimming technique and repeating it, over and over and over.

In the end, the heel angle increased an average of almost nine degrees. The difference between toe and heel angle decreased from 13.8 to 7.2 degrees during the one-year maintenance period.

There are some key elements to this study that must be understood: The horses lived in a pasture, not in stalls. They received regular daily exercise (one to three hours) under saddle on a sand arena in a riding program five days a week. The horses were all Arabians of similar height and weight and age (average 13.6 years).

The horses in the study were barefoot before the research began, so they did not have to go through a transition-to-barefoot period. They were trimmed by one farrier (Cappi Roghan, who deserves some credit) throughout the study; he understood his assignment and acquiesced to stick to the program.

In the end, this study is not a victory for barefoot over shoes. This is a victory for showing that trimming alone can achieve a morphological change.

It just takes a lot of time, that's all.

The timeline of the study would not be considered a victory. It took four months of conscientious trimming to reshape the horses’ hooves, and then 12 additional months for the hoof to grow and stabilize in order to complete the study and prove the trim's effect. The authors felt that 16 months was required, based on the premise that a horse’s hoof grows an average of one centimeter per month, so that each horse, by the end of the study, would have had ample time to grow a completely new hoof.

The interesting aspects of the study are the way that the hoof morphology changed in one aspect then changed back. For instance, the area of the frog initially increased, then decreased.

The authors suggest that the horses’ feet at the beginning of the study illustrated the characteristics of wild horses living on soft sandy substrate, as documented by Brian Hampson PhD at the University of Queensland in his recently completed doctoral thesis, The Effects of Environment on the Feral Horse Foot.

The increase in toe angle during the initial transition period was an average of 2.7 degrees. Because this change was gradual, the authors commented that the trimming technique allowed the foot’s internal structures to gradually adapt, without any pathological consequences such as wall flares.

It should also be noted that the authors concurred that the goals of the trimming—palmar/plantar migration of the heels, increases in heel angle and support length, and increased solar angulation of the coffin bone -- are potentially beneficial to the health of the foot.

The key sentence to this study is found near the end of the paper: “Current knowledge of hoof structure and dynamics is incomplete and these ideas, while speculative, may provide a stimulus for further research.”

Note: The study was supported by the Bernice Barbour Foundation and the American Quarter Horse Association. The research team consisted of, in addition to Drs Clayton and Bowker, veterinary student Sarah Gray and MacPhail Center lab manager LeeAnn Kaiser.

Citation:

Clayton, H., Gray, S., Kaiser, L. and Bowker, R. (2011), Effects of barefoot trimming on hoof morphology. Australian Veterinary Journal, 89: 305–311. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-0813.2011.00806.x

Dr. Clayton on biomechanics of footing for dressage horses, part 1


Dr. Clayton on biomechanics of footing for dressage horses, part 2

To understand the full spectrum of hoof science, it is necessary to consider that it is much more than anatomy and physiology. The hoof is in motion, and how it moves affects its shape, its health and the relative condition of its components. Biomechanics means much more than trying to judge if a horse is landing heel-first or not.

You may need to adjust the volume on your computer. Watch as Dr. Clayton describes the mechanics of how the hoof of a dressage horse interacts with the arena footing. Filmed at the 2007 Adequan/ USDF Annual Convention in Orlando, Florida, this video is available on DVD with several other lectures on hoofcare and lameness from the USDF web site.

The abstract for this article is available online: The Australian Veterinary Journal: Effects of barefoot trimming on hoof morphology. You can also purchase a download of the complete article.

Click on ad image for details; image from Dr. Bowker's research at Michigan State U.

 © Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.  
 

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Favorite Rap Video of 2010: Equine Biomechanics Researcher Jacob Setterbo's "Stay in School" Message

Who says engineers can't be creative? Or cool? Score (another) one for Jacob Setterbo, PhD candidate in the J.D. Wheat Veterinary Orthopedic Research Laboratory at the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. He's been part of the California-based research efforts to find some basic truths about the relationship between galloping horses' legs, hooves and racetracks--and his work there will ultimately mean that some horses' lives will be saved. He will soon receive his doctorate for his efforts in engineering the systems that measure the hoof-track interface.

But he can still have some fun. Jake has volunteered at a local elementary school and came up with the idea for a little rap music video to get kids to connect the dots between thinking what he does in his research is "cool" and the idea that they can do it too...if they just stay in school.

The first time I watched this video I couldn't believe it, and I've been forwarding the link to it to teacher friends ever since. I hope you will do the same, as well as show it to any school-age kids in your social circle.

Jake's backup singers, by the way, are some fifth graders.

For my part, I'd make a very similar one, but I'd be encouraging people to go back to school. It's never too late! In 2010, I spent a week at Michigan State University's McPhail Equine Performance Center taking Dr Hilary Clayton's Equinology class for non-veterinarians on gait analysis and biomechanics.

For me, it was almost better than a week on the beach at St Bart's. True, we just pretended to do research, but it was a hands-on experience with real horses at one of the world's leading centers for equine biomechanics research.

If nothing else, being in the class reminded me of all I don't know about horses, all I need to learn, how much things are changing and the fact that these courses are out there--all you have to do is sign up. You don't have to move away for a seminar or a year, you can try things out first, see how you like it, and spend time with people like Hilary Clayton and her staff and graduate and doctoral candidates, who will have suggestions of what you might do if you want to pursue education goals once you've been out of school for a while. Progams like Equinology are amazing!

Universities are full of comeback kids like you (and maybe even me, someday). Like most things, once you take that first step, the rest seems much easier. Sitting in a lecture seems more natural, and the whole idea is much less intimidating when you're looking at it from the inside than it ever was from the outside.

The Equinology course required pre-arrival anatomy study but it was still a challenge to apply the gait analysis stickers in exact locations. In other words, before we could connect the dots, we had to place the dots, and there's no wiggle room when you're palpating a joint to mark it for gait analysis.  (Sarah Miles photo)

To learn about the 2011 Equinology gait analysis course at Michigan State with Dr Clayton, visit www.equinology.com. Dr. Barb Crabbe will also offer a course in lameness identification before the gait analysis course; the two courses can be taken together.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.
 

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Equine Sport Science, ESPN-Style, Looks at Zenyatta

During today's Breeders Cup broadcast, ESPN took a stab at trying to explain Zenyatta's superior performance ability. They put together great graphics and computer images but understandably had to take some shortcuts to "dumb it down" for the casual national television audience.

I can just see Professor Hilary Clayton, the leading biomechanics expert in North America, pursing her lips and shaking her head, "Well, noooo, not exactly..." and Professor Jean-Marie Denoix over in France,  rolling his eyes, throwing up his hands and sighing, "Oh, mon dieu! The Americans just don't understand..."

How do you squash a PhD into three minutes? Well, you don't. But at least they tried.

Of course ESPN can't go into detail--John Brenkus only had three minutes to explain the whole thing! Anyone who knows about horses will know that it's not just about stride length and height at the withers--if it was, the big horses would dominate, and we'd have no way to explain Goldikova, Smarty Jones, Northern Dancer, Mine That Bird (he did win the Derby!) and all the smaller, more compact Thoroughbreds who are, after all, the more common horses running in our races. And the more commonly found horses in the winner's circle are not over 17 hands.

The same is true of jumpers; it might seem like bigger horses would be better jumpers but it's not a given. There are many factors to consider.

The great 18th century racehorse champion Eclipse is believed to have excelled because he was extraordinarily "normal". His body parts were in harmonious proportion to each other, which scientists believe facilitated speed.

Studies have been done that show that the most successful racehorses are not the largest or the smallest or the most anything but the most "average"--the ones whose proportions are average. Take Eclipse, for instance. That most successful of original racehorses left us his skeleton, which has been analyzed by Professor Alan Wilson and his researchers at the Structure and Motion Analysis Lab at the Royal Veterinary College in England.

Based on Eclipse and other racehorses, Wilson's data analysis determined that it was not size that mattered in  champion racehorses but proportion. The champion racehorses like Eclipse had all their body parts in proportion to each other--no one body part was out of a statistical range in proportion to others. Their skeletal systems demonstrated a balance of dimensions.

(By the way, the great Eclipse went down in history in the 1700s for winning 18 races--one less than Zenyatta. It is said his jockey never used a whip or spurs.)

The formula for speed is not just the distance covered in a stride, but the stride length x the stride frequency. There is also the x factor of efficiency--how straight are the limbs, how much excess motion is there, how efficient is the respiration, etc.?  How easy is it for the horse to reach his hind limbs underneath his body, and how far under his body do they reach? There are many ingredients to a racehorse's stride and speed formula.

So a horse with a shorter stride but a fleeter, more efficient turn of foot can potentially run faster than a long-striding large horse, although one wonders if the smaller horse may tire sooner if taking more breaths and more strides. But they may be more efficient strides.

This is where shoes come in. A horse that can't "get hold" of the track loses stride efficiency and, often, even stride frequency if the foot is delayed in breakover or the horse struggles to re-orient the foot to land in a certain pattern to avoid pain or limb interference or simple fatigue from sinking too deep into sandy footing.

It's probably harder and more time-consuming to train a huge huge with a huge stride like Zenyatta's, and the racing public should remember and respect that John Sherriffs opted to delay her start in the races until she was ready, probably because of her need to finish developing physically and no doubt "find her balance" when running at speed. Most big horses would not be given that luxury to develop first, race when ready.


Those are just some of the factors that enter into the equation of why Zenyatta excels. You can do formulas and analyze her all day but there are some intangibles. One them is called "heart". Not the heart in the chest, but the heart in the spirit. Zenyatta is loaded with that.

We saw that heart today.

A great racehorse will always be just out of the reach of science. If not, there'd be no reason to go to the races. Handicapping would be an exact science. But thankfully we still have that x factor.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.
 

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Dr Hilary Clayton's 2010 Equinology Biomechanics and Gait Analysis Class: April 5 Deadline!

3 April 2010 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

The McPhail Center at Michigan State is one of the world's few research centers dedicated to researching the science of equine performance--from the ground up. Any number of research projects on aspects of equine movement, conformation or sport performance may be simultaneously underway under the direction of Dr. Hilary Clayton.

It's 30 days and counting until it is time to join us at Michigan State University for the special four-day course in equine biomechanics and lameness at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine’s Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center, presented by Dr. Hilary Clayton. The course is offered through the Equinology study program.

But the deadline to let Equinology know you want to attend is NOW.

“This is a rare opportunity to see the McPhail Center from the inside,” Dr. Clayton told me last week. “One of the things people might not expect is that we’ll be working on neck and back dissections, and looking at some pathologies.

For 3-D motion analysis, horses' joints must be palpated and markers applied to the centers of joint rotation. A marker out of place can ruin a lengthy evaluation session.

“For the most part," she continued, "the students will have the chance to perfect their palpation skills, and to learn how to place markers in the centers of joint rotation. Using our equipment, a student will be able to see the effects of placing the marker in the wrong place, versus the right place, and the effect it can have on evaluating a horse.”

In addition to covering biomechanics, conformation, and gait analysis in a classroom format, students will be privy to summaries of current research from around the world, as well as from the McPhail lab.

Built-in force plates in the McPhail Center's arena can be used to determine loading and landing patterns and the location of the center of pressure on horses standing in place (or piaffing in place) or worked on a circle.

Of special interest is the Center’s new coordinated system of six force plates. They are positioned for working horses within an arena, under the footing, in a circle or for standing the horse, so that one foot is on each force plate. “We use this system in research; a recent study tested posture and balance in foals,” Dr Clayton remarked.

Another research project in progress at the McPhail Center is evaluating the use of side reins on horses: how do they affect the horse’s center of mass, particularly in different sizes and types of horses?

Students will also learn about a special saddle developed and tested through the McPhail Center for use in therapeutic riding.

Many hoof blog readers will be interested in Dr Clayton’s research on what is called simply “barefoot trimming” at Michigan State. Dr. Clayton’s recent study tracked the changes in feet maintained using a simply set of parameters; her documentation found that as the heels were consistently lowered, they did migrate caudally and that the palmar (or plantar) angle of the coffin bone increased proportionately.

One of Equinology's superb "illustrated horses", courtesy of Debranne Pattillo

Dr. Clayton's research center equipment includes a motion analysis system, AMTI force plate, Noraxon EMG system, Pliance saddle pressure pad and other custom equipment for making measurements of horses and riders. This course will help sharpen your eye for irregularities, asymmetries and gait abnormalities through a variety of formats utilized in today’s industry. Your own visual appreciation of horse movement and your acumen for sensing abnormalities will be supported--and tested--by equipment used in the lab.

For more information on research projects at the McPhail Center, please click here.

Class Outline: Gait analysis and evaluation guideline, utilizing the data from the research equipment in the real world, conformation evaluation, locating palpation points for segment and angle measurements, analysis of conformation, anatomy and terminology, history of biomechanics, biomechanical techniques, equipometry discussion.

About Dr Clayton: Hilary Clayton BVMS, PhD, MRCVS has been the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine since July, 1997. As a veterinarian and researcher, Dr. Clayton's studies on the biomechanics of equine gait have focused on sport horses, including dressage and jumping horses. Some recent work has included videographic studies of Olympic dressage and jumping events and kinematic and kinetic research with some of the world's top dressage riders and horses in the Netherlands. She is also the author of The Dynamic Horse and Conditioning Sport Horses and co-author of Activate Your Horse’s Core, Equine Locomotion and Clinical Anatomy of the Horse. Dr. Clayton needs no introduction when “biomechanics” is mentioned; she is one of the leading international specialists in the subject, particularly in the anatomy and function of the equine hoof and limb.

Fees: The cost of the course is $995 (about $250 per day) and that fee includes course handouts and supplies. A $200 deposit is required to enroll.

An additional weekend course in equine lameness with Dr Barb Crabbe is being offered for the days immediately preceding the four-day course.

For full course details, please visit the Equinology website and click onto EQ300 or cut and paste this address: http://www.equinology.com/info/course.asp?courseid=12 (Dr. Clayton) and the EQ600 details can be found at: http://www.equinology.com/info/course.asp?courseid=78 (Dr. Crabbe).

Join your Hoofcare & Lameness/Hoof Blog editor in this very special class. It could be the most important thing you do to jump-start your career in the direction of the future of equine lameness and hoof science. Get a head start: find out where this world of ours is going. See you there!

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Postural Sway Research for Lameness Examination May Be Relevant in the Future

by Fran Jurga and Sarah Miles | 29 December 2008 | Fran Jurga's Hoof BlogSarah Miles reports on some of the latest research being conducted at the McPhail Center for Equine Peformance at Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine:

While attending Equinology's gait analysis class at the McPhail Center in October, our group was privileged to attend a presentation by McPhail researcher Dr. Sandra Nauwelaerts, a Belgian biologist.

Nauwelaerts gathers up foals soon after they are born and puts them on the force plate to see how they stabilize themselves and then continues to measure this throughout their development. The resulting pattern of data is called the “stabilogram.”

She has just begun to collect her data, so her project still falls strictly into the category of hypothesis, but the potential for impact on the world of equine performance seems profound.

The stabilograms, thus far, show that foals show greater instability, or rocking, cranially to caudally as opposed to laterally, while adult horses — though clearly designed for forward motion— show more lateral sway.

While Nauwelaerts does not offer a hypothesis for this (yet!), she did make the connection between these findings and observing the stability of both lame and neuropathic horses. Thus far, stabilograms from horses with diagnosed neuropathy show a higher instability and more cranial/caudal deviation, than the stabilograms of normal horses.

Further, when blindfolds are placed on both sound and neuropathic horses, thus far, those with neuropathy show greater deviation than the sound horses. Additionally, lame horses could potentially show greater instability around the limb that they avoiding loading.

The data is still being collected, marker by marker and horse by horse at The McPhail Center, so it is premature to get excited. But for a moment there, in the glow of the gait analysis runway's infrared lights, it was possible to imagine a world where lame horses do not have to be injected with nerve blocks and run in circles, but just asked to stand quietly on a force plate to identify the compromised limb, or where horses with neuropathy can be easily and confidently identified before lengthy and expensive diagnostics are employed.

These ideas are, again, only hypotheses and have yet to be borne out by the extensive data collection and analysis that will be necessary for the research to be published.

Equinology’s next course in Biomechanics and Gait Analysis (EQ300MSU) with Dr. Hilary Clayton at The McPhail Center is Oct. 12-15 2009. An understanding of basic anatomic and veterinary vocabulary is a prerequisite for this class. Visit www.equinology.com for more information.

Hoofcare Publishing would like to thank Sarah for her work as stand-in journalist during the 2008 McPhail Equinology course.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Best of 2008: A Class Act at the McPhail Center's Equinology Gait Seminar

by Fran Jurga | 29 December 2008 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

I had a wild plan and approached Dr. Hilary Clayton of Michigan State University's McPhail Center for Equine Performance with my proposal: a camp for professional at her research center, where we could learn about high-tech gait analysis and help her with a research project.

With her usual British chipper nonchalance, she replied. "Ok, come in October then. It's already in the works." The Equinology group had a course planned at the McPhail Center and it was to be open to equine professionals in search of a deeper exposure to the high-tech side of equine biomechanics.

As it turned out, I wasn't able to be there, but Sarah Miles provided a wonderful report, from which these comments are taken:

The McPhail Center, located at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University in East Lansing, is one of the few university labs designed expressly for studying equine biomechanics. It is a fantastic facility — our classroom looked into the covered riding arena where research staff and students collect data with the horses.

When Dr. Clayton dramatically lifted the curtains on the riding arena the first day, a collective gasp of awe went up from the group. She told us that the building's vaulted ceiling design actually is borrowed from church architecture, so we really were having a religious experience, of sorts! But perhaps that explains the sense of “entering the inner sanctum” that one gets from learning from this world-renowned equine biomechanics expert and her staff and students in the lab designed just for their research.

Of course, what is really interesting about the arena is primarily along one side, where eight infrared video cameras collect data from horses lit like Christmas trees (Dr. Clayton’s words), as their anatomical markers move through the cameras’ shimmering red field of vision. It is one thing to hear Dr. Clayton describe the process of research and data collection, and another to experience it for yourself.

Horses' joints are marked with photosensitive styrofoam balls that will light up under infrared camera exposure. (McPhail Center photo courtesy of Dr Hilary Clayton)

The end result of the gait analysis is a stick-horse animation showing the horse in motion on the computer screen. A further sophistication of this system creates a 3D rendering. (McPhail Center photo courtesy of Dr Hilary Clayton)

Dr. Narelle Stubbs, the equine physiotherapist who co-wrote Activate Your Horse’s Core with Dr. Clayton and lab manager LeeAnn Kaiser helped us to tape all the markers on the horse in the right spots. LeeAnn showed us how they calibrate the cameras, create a template, collect the data, connect the dots, and generate three-dimensional computer animation of the horse in motion. The data is also logged into spreadsheets and analyzed for the results of any given project. Dr. Clayton explained that this technology is very similar to how they created “Golem” in Lord of the Rings.

A lecture by Dr. Clayton on the function of the stifle offered her untested hypothesis (stemming from the fact that the torque on the stifle joint is in the back of the joint) that the horse’s hamstring muscles are more important in the action of the stifle than the quads. Her thinking on this was that dressage horses are asked to work as though they are “sitting.” A student with experience in ballet volunteered the ballerina's plie support system of standing on the toes while engaging the hamstrings and adductors so that the quads are more relaxed and not the sole source of support. He even demonstrated the plie for the class!

In this research project, a rider's rein tension in measured. Rein tension can be compared between riders or to understand how different bits or the components of a bridle and reins are working. (McPhail Center photo courtesy of Dr Hilary Clayton)

Other highlights of the course included how the force plates work, and a riding demonstration of an electronic pad placed beneath the saddle to measure the pressure it puts on the horse’s back as he performs different activities, and an afternoon spent practicing core mobilization and strengthening exercises for horses with Dr. Stubbs.

The winter edition of this Equinology course is held at Writtle College in England in January and is sold out. Equinology’s next USA course, Biomechanics and Gait Analysis (EQ300MSU), with Dr. Clayton at The McPhail Center will be held October 12-15, 2009. An understanding of basic anatomic and veterinary vocabulary is a prerequisite for this class. Visit www.equinology.com for more information.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Lame Brains Unite: Hilary Clayton Gait Study Course Opened to Public

This horse is outfitted for a session of gait analysis in the McPhail Center's world-class video gait analysis laboratory. Equipment at the Center includes a Motion Analysis system, AMTI force plate, Noraxon EMG system, Pliance saddle pressure pad and other custom equipment for making measurements of horses and riders.

Every September, we get the feeling we should be learning something new. Starting back to school. Taking a new interest in our profession. Moving forward with the times.

But we've never had an opportunity like this before.

A private course in equine lameness has been scheduled for next month at Michigan State University's McPhail Center for Equine Performance. The decision was made yesterday to open the course to the public, so this is the first and perhaps only announcement that interested professionals and horse owners may register for a hands-on course in equine gaits and lameness identification with world expert Dr. Hilary Clayton.

The course is offered by the innovative international program Equinology, which offers courses on biomechanics with Dr Clayton and other experts all over the world. The program is designed as a professional development track for those seeking a career in equine body work, rehabilitation, etc. but sometimes courses are open to non-program participants.

Here's a brief description:

Course Title: Biomechanics, Applied Anatomy and Gait Abnormalities (Course # EQ 300)
Course Dates: 10/20/2008 to 10/23/2008

This 4-day course offers both classroom and hands-on approaches. This is an actual course, not a workshop. The goal is for you to learn to recognize irregularities and gait abnormalities. Live and filmed horses, some with diagnosed problems, will be presented for inspection.

Understanding gait diagramming and where the limbs are placed throughout individual gaits enables you to visualize which joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles are utilized for the movements. This course does not attempt to replace veterinary expertise; however it will teach you better assessment skills. Surface anatomy and palpation of joints, tendons and ligaments are also included.

Course topics include:
Gait analysis and evaluation guidelines
Conformation evaluation
Locating palpation points
Causes and symptoms of the lame horse
Subjective analysis of conformation: Limb deviations, rotations and determination of symmetry
Basic anatomy and terminology
Preventing lameness
Defining and diagramming the basic gaits
History of biomechanics
Biomechanical techniques
High Speed Cinematography
Equipometry discussion
Measuring horses
Stay Apparatus: structure, function and palpation of the forelimb
Reciprocal and Stay Apparatus: structure, function and palpation of the hindlimb
Structure and function of the head and neck
Sports analysis/video presentations & problem solving for various disciplines

Prerequisites: A good knowledge of veterinary vocabulary, equine anatomy and horse handling skills; you will be expected to have read Dr Clayton's book, The Dynamic Horse.

Tuition: $995 for four days.

Note: Equinology and Dr Clayton will also offer this course at Writtle College in Essex, England in January 2009.

About the center: The Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center is a state-of-the art equine sports and lameness facility housed in its own mini-campus with dedicated indoor arena, stabling and laboratories at the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine in East Lansing, Michigan. Since the center opened in the year 2000, some of the world's leading research in equine sports medicine and biomechanics, culminating in world-renowned research to benefit performance and soundness of equine athletes, has been conducted at the center. Veterinarians and researchers from all over the world travel to the McPhail Center for consultation and collaboration.

About Dr Clayton: Dr. Clayton has been the first incumbent of the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine since July, 1997. As a veterinarian and researcher, Dr. Clayton's studies on the biomechanics of equine gait have focused on sport horses, including dressage and jumping horses. Her work has included videographic analytic studies of Olympic dressage and jumping events and kinematic and kinetic research with some of the world's top dressage riders and horses in the Netherlands. She has a special interest in the foot and has contributed greatly to the body of knowledge on the role of the foot in locomotion and its functional anatomy. A lifelong rider, Dr. Clayton is a USDF Bronze, Silver and Gold Medalist, and is a certified equestrian coach in the UK and Canada. She is the author of several books including Conditioning Sport Horses, The Dynamic Horse, Clinical Anatomy of the Horse, and Activate Your Horse's Core. She is co-author of the textbook, Equine Locomotion, and is a longstanding consulting editor with Hoofcare and Lameness Journal, which also sells her publications.

To learn more, visit equinology.com or to register, use the online system. If you have questions, contact Debranne Pattillo, President of Equinology, in Gualala, California: tel 707 884-9963 or email office@equinology.com. Please mention that you read about the course on this blog and that you are inquiring about course EQ300.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. All images and text property of the McPhail Center and/or Hoofcare Publishing and protected to full extent of law.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online or received via a daily email through an automated delivery service.
To subscribe to or learn more about Hoofcare and Lameness, please visit our main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Hilary Clayton Equine Biomechanics Lecture in Pennsylvania September 24th

ANNOUNCEMENT: Hilary M. Clayton, BVMS, PhD, MRCVS will be the speaker at the Dressage at Devon Forum in Devon, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, September 24, 2008. With her lecture The Bio-Mechanics of the Horse, participants will also be able to participate in one of Dr Clayton's lively question and answer discussion sessions.

The lecture, Fitness Training to Maximize Dressage Performance, will address the fitness requirements of dressage horses at different levels of training, including exercises that can be used to improve the horse’s fitness and strength in a highly sport-specific manner. Descriptions will include exercises performed from the ground,cross-training exercises and strength training exercises. Dr. Clayton will also discuss performance issues related to lack of strength or suppleness.

A graduate of the University of Glasgow, Dr. Clayton is a professor and the McPhail Dressage Chair in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at Michigan State University. She has focused her professional career on the study of the movement of horses, including gait analysis, lameness mechanics and the conditioning of sport horses. Dr. Clayton is also an accomplished equestrian with Bronze, Silver and Gold medals from the United States Dressage Federation.

Fitness Training to Maximize Dressage Performance will be held in the Devon Room at the 34th Annual Dressage at Devon Horse Show, on the Devon Horse Show Grounds in Devon, PA. The Forum will begin at 7:00 (doors open at 6:00 pm.). Tickets are $40 and a gourmet boxed dinner and soft drinks. There will also be a cash bar. For information or to purchase tickets, contact Anne Moss at 610-380-1518 or email annemoss@verizon.net.

Dressage at Devon is the highest rated international dressage competition and most complete breed show outside of Europe. Olympic medalist Robert Dover calls Dressage at Devon “the standard by which all American horse shows should be judged.” Dressage at Devon takes place at the Devon Horse Show Grounds, Route 30, in Devon, Pennsylvania, September 23rd through 28th. For more information on Dressage at Devon please visit
www.dressageatdevon.org.

Dr. Clayton's new book and dvd set, Activate Your Horse's Core, is now available from Hoofcare Publishing. The 95-minute dvd and laminated stable manual help trainers and riders understand the biomechanical stresses on sport horses and how to develop balance and strength of movement. The cost is $50 plus $5 postage in the USA, $12 postage to the rest of the world. The set was co-authored with Dr Narelle Stubbs.