Walking the Talk: Why Focus on the Walk Gait in Equine Analysis

When assessing equine soundness, the trot has long been the traditional gait of choice. Most veterinary surgeons and trainers are accustomed to watching horses jog up and down in a straight line, looking for asymmetries or irregularities. Yet growing scientific evidence suggests that the walk may offer even greater diagnostic value, particularly when paired with advanced motion analysis tools such as TrojanTrack.

TrojanTrack’s technology has been designed specifically to capture gait data at the walk, providing precise, objective insights into subtle compensations and asymmetries that might otherwise be missed. This approach is not about breaking tradition; it is about unlocking richer information, improving welfare, and making lameness assessment safer, easier, and more consistent for both horse and handler.

Why the Walk Matters in Equine Biomechanics

The walk is a four-beat gait with a complex pattern of limb coordination. Unlike the trot, which is highly symmetrical and rigid, the walk allows horses more freedom to adjust how they bear weight, push off, and swing their limbs.

Research has shown that when horses experience pain or discomfort, they develop compensatory strategies: subtle shifts in stride length, loading, or body posture that help them to stay mobile. At the trot, the momentum and rhythm can mask these strategies. At the walk, however, the slower pace and greater biomechanical variability make such adaptations more visible.

Studies such as Serra Bragança et al. (2020) have demonstrated that induced lameness in horses produces clear and measurable changes at the walk, particularly in stance duration and limb loading. Starke et al. (2022) further noted that even experienced veterinary surgeons rely on minute head and pelvic movements at walk to form judgements about lameness, underlining its importance in professional practice.

In short: the walk reveals how a horse is coping, not just whether it is lame.

Beyond the Trot: Why Tradition Falls Short

For many years, the trot has been considered the standard gait for evaluating lameness. Its symmetrical, two-beat rhythm allows clinicians and trainers to look for imbalances between diagonal limb pairs, often with reasonable accuracy. Yet while useful for spotting obvious issues, the trot does not always reveal the whole picture.

Because the trot is a relatively rigid gait, it limits the ways in which a horse can compensate. Subtle signs of discomfort, such as shortening a single stance phase, adjusting the landing angle of a hoof, or altering head carriage, may be smoothed over by the momentum and regularity of the gait. These fleeting asymmetries are further obscured by speed: a trot stride lasts less than a second, giving little time for the eye, or even the camera, to capture nuanced differences. By contrast, the walk extends each stride to more than a second, providing far greater clarity and a slower rhythm in which compensations are easier to detect.

Practicality also plays a role. Not every horse can trot comfortably or safely. Animals recovering from surgery, experiencing acute pain, or progressing through the early stages of rehabilitation may be compromised or at risk if asked to trot in hand. For these horses, walk analysis offers a welfare-friendly alternative that still produces diagnostically meaningful results.

Finally, research has highlighted the variability of human interpretation at the trot. Even experienced veterinary surgeons may disagree when assessing the same horse trotting in a straight line. This variability reflects how easily subtle signals are missed or misinterpreted at speed. Objective motion analysis at the walk reduces this subjectivity, transforming small shifts in stride length, stance duration, or body movement into precise data points that can be tracked over time.

For these reasons, the trot, while a valuable tool, cannot stand alone as the gold standard for lameness assessment. For everyday monitoring, rehabilitation, or the detection of early lameness, looking beyond tradition and focusing on the walk provides a richer and safer picture of equine soundness. The trot alone is simply not enough.

Why the Walk is Ideal for Filming and Analysis

Technology such as TrojanTrack captures a range of gait metrics while the horse is simply walking in a straight line. These include stride length, stance and swing phases, stride timing, fetlock range of motion, vertical velocity, landing angle, and head and hip movement, all measured for both left and right limbs.

At first glance, these may sound highly technical, but the principle is simple: lameness creates asymmetry, and these measures highlight it. A horse may shorten a stride, land at a slightly different angle, carry its head unevenly, or drop one hip more than the other. At the trot, these differences can be masked by the rigid rhythm and momentum of the gait; at the walk, the horse has more freedom to compensate, and those compensations become visible when measured.

Focusing on the walk offers several advantages. The slower rhythm gives far greater clarity, making subtle adaptations such as a shortened stance phase or slight hip hike easier to observe frame by frame. Filming at walk is also inherently safer and more repeatable, whether the horse is in rehabilitation, experiencing mild discomfort, or simply undergoing a routine check. Even a ten-second walk generates thousands of data points, providing a level of detail beyond what the human eye can reliably capture. Importantly, the walk also allows horses to display compensations that the mechanics of trot tend to hide, such as shifting weight, shortening one side of the stride, or altering hoof placement. Because walking can be recorded regularly without risk, it is possible to build a clear baseline for each individual horse, making even the smallest deviation from normal patterns easier to detect.

In practice, this means a simple filmed walk can provide richer, safer, and more frequent insights than relying solely on trot-ups. The walk is not just a preliminary step in a lameness examination; with modern technology, it is the ideal gait for objective, everyday monitoring.

One of the most compelling reasons to prioritise walk analysis is the way horses adapt when experiencing discomfort. Key patterns include:

• Head nodding or tilt – at walk, even slight head movements can indicate altered weight-bearing in the forelimbs.

• Hip hike or drop – subtle asymmetries in hindlimb motion are easier to detect at walk, where swing and stance phases are more variable.

• Stride shortening – horses often shorten one side’s stride at walk to reduce discomfort, a change that can be small yet highly significant.

• Altered stance time – shifting weight quickly off a sore limb is more evident at walk, where stance phase is naturally longer than at trot.

These adaptations, once captured and quantified, give veterinary surgeons and trainers not just a diagnosis, but an understanding of the horse’s coping strategies. That insight informs rehabilitation plans, training adjustments, and welfare decisions.

The walk is also the most accessible gait for horse owners, trainers and veterinary surgeons in everyday settings. Walking places minimal physical strain on the horse, meaning it can be performed comfortably by almost any animal, from a youngster in early training to a senior horse in light work or retirement. For those recovering from injury or surgery, the walk is often the only gait that can be assessed safely, yet it still provides valuable diagnostic information.

Filming the walk is easier to carry out consistently than capturing a trot. Horses can be recorded in a stable yard, an arena, or even a small paddock, without the need for large spaces or skilled handlers to keep them moving evenly. This practicality means owners can create a reliable video record over time, offering veterinary surgeons an objective timeline of changes rather than relying on a single snapshot assessment.

TrojanTrack is designed with precisely this accessibility in mind. By focusing on the walk, it enables routine, repeatable checks to become part of normal horse management, whether at home or during competition schedules. In doing so, it makes gait analysis a tool for proactive care, not just a reaction to visible lameness.

The Future of Equine Gait Assessment

The walk is no longer just a warm-up gait before the “real” trot-up begins. It is a biomechanically rich, diagnostically powerful, and practically safe gait for assessing equine health.

As equine medicine evolves, technology is increasingly bridging the gap between expert assessment and everyday management. Technology is a crucial part of this movement: providing objective data, supporting professional judgement, and helping owners detect changes earlier.

TrojanTrack’s decision to focus on the walk reflects both science and practicality. Subtle lameness is more visible, compensatory strategies are easier to measure, and horses can be assessed safely and regularly. For veterinary surgeons, trainers and owners, this means better insights, earlier interventions, and improved welfare outcomes.

By embracing the walk as the primary gait for analysis, TrojanTrack aligns with the latest veterinary research, prioritises horse welfare, and offers a safer, more insightful approach to soundness monitoring.

In the end, a simple walk down the yard captured on a smartphone can tell us more about a horse’s wellbeing than ever before.

Sources:

• Serra Bragança, F.M., et al. (2020). Adaptation strategies of horses with induced forelimb lameness walking. Equine Veterinary Journal.

• Starke, S.D. (2022). Expert visual assessment strategies for equine lameness examinations in a straight line. Veterinary Record.

• Bragança, F.M., et al. (2022). Equine Gait Analysis: Translating Science into Practice. MDPI Animals.

• Uellendahl, K.E., et al. (2024). Vision-Based Equine Gait Classification Using a Convolutional Neural Network with Transfer Learning. Sensors

• Crecan, M., & Peștean, I.C. (2023). Vision-Based Detection of Equine Lameness Using Deep Learning Methods. Sensors.

• British Equestrian Federation. (2024). State of the Nation Report.

• LSU AgCenter. (2015). Economic Cost of Lameness.