In horses, lameness is often more pronounced on a circle, compared to straight line (Ross and Dyson, 2011). At trot, some lameness conditions worsen when the affected limb is on the inside of the circle while others worsen when the affected limb is on the outside. In addition to asymmetrical loading of the anatomical structures (e.g. loading of the medial structures increased on the outside limb), an increased overall loading of the outside limb has been demonstrated in the forelimb. In horses circling at trot, Chateau et al. (2013) using a dynamometric horseshoe, demonstrated that the peak vertical force during stance is significantly larger on the outside forelimb. However to date, no kinetic data is available in the hind limb. In sport horses it is usual to lunge horses on circles, at trot but also at the canter, on soft ground, for training or rehabilitation purposes. Contrary to trot, canter is an asymmetrical gait. Previous studies using force plates (Merkens et al., 1993) have shown that in a horse cantering in straight line, the trailing hind limb (first to land) supports the lowest peak vertical force. At the canter on a circle, the inside limbs are the leading limbs, and the outside limbs, the trailing limbs. If load distribution is similar in circle as in straight line, this would imply that the outside hind limb would support the lowest peak vertical force, which would then be the opposite as what could be hypothesized given the previous results obtained at trot on the forelimb (Chateau et al. 2013). Therefore, the objective of the present study was to compare the peak vertical force and vertical impulse measured in the outside and inside hind limbs in horses circling, both at trot and canter, on a soft surface.
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