Concept of a force-measuring horseshoe.
To further develop objective methods in the field of gait analysis a force-measuring horseshoe (FM shoe) has been developed. The ground reaction forces were determined by measuring the degree of displacement between the two solid parts of the shoe. This was done by three removable measuring units (MUs) that were equipped with strain gauges and placed in the toe and in each of the quarter parts. Before performing force recordings the sensors were calibrated with the actual MUs mounted on the shoe. This can be done in the field with a specially developed equipment. The shape of the signal generated by the MUs corresponds very well to signals generated by other instrumented shoes and force plate traces reported by other authors. In a comparative study between the FM shoe and a force plate a good resemblance between force traces from the two systems was seen. There is still some work to be done to refine the method of calibrating the FM shoe. However, the good linear relationship between forces applied and the sensor signals implies that the concept of the FM shoe will fulfill the requirements of measuring absolute forces.
Roepstorff
L
L
Department of Medicine and Surgery, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala.
Drevemo
S
S
D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D002138:Calibration; D004867:Equipment Design; D005684:Gait; D006736:Horses / Q000502:physiology*; D010827:Physiology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods