How to… In 10 Easy Steps - The Horse Physio - Sue Palmer

Category: How to… In 10 Easy Steps

30.5.2022: The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram – Research and Development

By Sue Palmer on May 30, 2022

It’s Not Easy! Figuring out when a ridden horse is uncomfortable is not easy. It’s not like we can put the horse in a laboratory and perform a series of tests on him. We have to do what’s known as field-based studies, where we take measurements in the ‘real world’. There are limitations to this, […]

25.5.2022: The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram – Research and Development

By Sue Palmer on May 25, 2022

Pain Has Many Manifestations There are lots of ways that a horse can try to tell you he’s in pain, and lameness is just one of them. Also, pain affects many different areas, and there are many things that can affect pain. As a population, we are not great at recognising pain or lameness in […]

20.5.2022: The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram – Research and Development

By Sue Palmer on May 20, 2022

Can You Recognise Lameness From Your Horse’s Face? Using a previously developed list of facial expressions in the ridden horse (facial expression ethogram), a researcher studied 519 photographs of lame and non-lame horses. The photos included some horses before and after nerve blocks (i.e. lame, and then sound / non-lame). Pain scores were higher for […]

15.5.2022: The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram – Research and Development

By Sue Palmer on May 15, 2022

Recognising Your Horse’s Pain Face Thirteen people from different equestrian backgrounds were trained to look at photographs of horse’s heads and pick out specific features. They had a list of what they were looking for (an ethogram of ridden horse facial expressions), and had to mark each item as yes, no, or cannot see. Once […]

10.5.2022: The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram – Research and Development

By Sue Palmer on May 10, 2022

Does Your Horse Lean In On The Turn? This small study looked at how much horses leant in on the circle, both in hand and ridden, in trot and canter. The researchers found no differences between the amount of lean to the left compared to the right, which suggests that leaning in more on one […]

25.3.2022: The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram – Research and Development

By Sue Palmer on March 25, 2022

Lame On Both Front Legs? This study shows just how difficult it is to recognise lameness when it’s in both front legs. The researchers created short term lameness in 11 horses, by causing pressure-induced pain on the sole. They measured the movement of the horses, sound and lame, on a treadmill. There was very little […]

20.3.2022: The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram – Research and Development

By Sue Palmer on March 20, 2022

Would A Bone Scan Help You Figure Out What’s Wrong? As a lay person, it’s easy to think that a bone scan is one of the best diagnostic tools available, a gold standard in diagnosing what’s wrong with our horse. This study looked at how effective the bone scan is, by looking at how well […]

15.3.2022: The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram – Research and Development

By Sue Palmer on March 15, 2022

Pain Behaviour in Small Animals It’s not just horses who struggle to communicate their pain issues to humans. It’s common in small animals as well. This study found that many of the dogs and cats seen by vets and behaviourists as having behavioural problems are actually in pain. This could be musculoskeletal pain, but it […]

10.3.2022: The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram – Research and Development

By Sue Palmer on March 10, 2022

Studying the L5/L6 and lumbosacral joints A symphysis is a joint in which the bones are joined by a disc of fibrocartilage. This study used ultrasound to look at the sympheses between the 5th and 6th lumbar vertebrae (L5/L6 symphysis), and between the 6th lumbar vertebra and the sacrum (the lumbosacral symphysis). The horses involved […]

5.3.2022: The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram – Research and Development

By Sue Palmer on March 5, 2022

Recognising SI Pain Many of you will have wondered if your horse is sore in the sacroiliac region (SI). How can you tell? In this study, the researchers looked at the symptoms seen in 296 horses which responded to nerve blocking the sacroiliac region, and therefore presumably had pain in that region, as well as […]

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