Cervical spinal kinematics: a comparison between foals and adult horses.

The research presents a comparative study focusing on the spinal mobility of foals and adult horses, finding that young foals generally exhibit higher levels of spinal mobility than adults.

Method

• A photographic method was used to measure different types of movement in the spinal segments of both foals and adult horses. These movements included axial rotation, dorsoventral flexion and extension, and lateral bending. The measurements were taken at each intervertebral joint from the occiput (back of the skull) to the first thoracic vertebra.
• The sample size for the study consisted of 19 foals aged 12 months and below, and 14 horses aged over three years.

Results

• Upon comparing the measurements, the researchers found a general reduction in cervical spinal mobility as the horses aged. In other words, the foals displayed greater spinal mobility on average than the adult horses.
• For three of the joint movements tested at eight different joints, the adults displayed higher mobility than the foals. However, these differences were not statistically significant as they had a P-value greater than 0.05, indicating the results could have occurred by chance alone.
• On the contrary, for the remaining 21 joint movements, the foals displayed greater mobility than the adults. These differences were statistically significant in 16 cases as they had a P-value less than 0.05, suggesting these results were probably not due to chance.

Conclusion

• In terms of overall movement of the cervical spine, the young foals surpassed the adults by 17.3 per cent for axial rotation, 22.0 per cent for dorsoventral flexion and extension, and 18.7 per cent for lateral bending.
• The findings thereby suggest that age plays a crucial role in determining spinal mobility in horses, with a trend towards reduced movement as the animal matures.