Product details
Equine veterinarians are used to evaluate lameness and gait performance in horses by visual inspection only. This assessment is however subjective and affected by the imperfections of the human’s eyes. It also depends heavily on the ability and experience of individuals to detect horse gait asymmetries.
Equi-Pro® comes to support equine veterinarians and researchers in evaluating lameness and gait performance in an objective way. Equi-Pro is based on cutting-edge R&D carried out in the Eurostars EquiMoves project and validated in the “EquiMoves: A Wireless Networked Inertial Measurement System for Objective Examination of Horse Gait” scientific article.
Equi-Pro works by capturing the horse’s motion from up to nine synchronized wireless inertial measurement units (IMUs). It can be used in various equine gaits and it analyzes both the upper-body and the limb movements.
Hardware
Equi-Pro uses ProMove-V sensors, Inertia’s new-generation wireless Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) from the ProMove series. ProMove-V is a waterproof and dust-proof sensor which can sample and stream motion sensor data at high data rates using Inertia’s high-speed and low-power wireless technology.
The sensor data is accurately synchronized and transmitted to a central node, the Gateway, which connects to the computer through USB and acts as the master hub for synchronization, data collection and sensor configuration over-the-air.
Equi-Pro uses 7 or 9 ProMove-V sensors, depending on the configuration. Moreover, for research purposes, up to 18 sensors can be used in the application.
Software
The Equi‐Pro application integrates the motion processing software. which computes the relevant parameters and analyzes the horse’s gait. It quantifies the asymmetries and presents the results as complementary to the veterinary’s evaluation. The level of detail varies from the high‐level measurement overview to the in‐depth stride-by-stride information. Multiple measurements can be compared to evaluate the horse’s evolution in time and to quantify the effect of veterinary interventions (flexion tests and diagnostic analgesia).
