Читать книгу Equine Lameness for the Layman. Tools for Prompt Recognition, Accurate Assessment, and Proactive Management онлайн

6 страница из 44

Indeed, the lame horse actually goes to great lengths to tell us that there is a problem. Most will even reveal the likely cause to anyone who is willing to pay a little extra attention. As we’ll see, horses utilize a form of “sign language” that they convey by altering the movement of their body and limbs. Those of us who learn to assimilate this form of nonverbal communication will become effective observers of equine lameness. Of course this demands that we first explore the interplay between motion and meaning.

The key to informative visual assessment lies in our ability to recognize patterns of movement. The horse repeats both normal and abnormal actions with each stride, thereby affording us the opportunity to develop and confirm our impressions over time. Pattern recognition will be the basic technique that we utilize during our study of the lame horse throughout the course of this book. This skill requires that we develop the ability to “listen” with our eyes and refrain from overthinking what we see. Fortunately for us, lameness recognition can indeed be learned.ssss1