Can you tell when your horse is lame?
- Ally Lowther
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
New research reveals a surprising gap in owner awareness and ability to know if their horse is lame. A study presented at our 2026 conference found that most horse owners struggle to identify hindlimb and bilateral lameness — and are more confident than their results suggest.
Jade England is a small animal vet at a veterinary hospital in Leicester. She presented the poster, "Investigating the challenges in lameness identification amongst equine owners," at the Horses Inside Out Conference in February 2026 and earned runner-up in the Scientific Poster Competition. This article takes a closer look at research and what we can learn from it to enhance the welfare of the horses in our care.
Lameness is one of the most common problems in horses. Yet despite how frequently it occurs, research has long suggested that a significant proportion of lame horses go unrecognised by their owners. Until now, little attention has been paid to the specific question of why and which aspects of lameness identification do owners actually struggle with, and where do their knowledge gaps lie? It was these questions that sparked Jade's England research.
The Inspiration Behind the Research
"My love of sports and competing sparked an interest in equine performance and lameness," Jade explains. "I began to notice that at many competitions, lower performing horses had higher ridden pain ethogram scores and appeared lame — and it interested me that these signs were potentially going unnoticed by their riders."
At the time, Jade was a third-year veterinary student, and the observations she was making in the field began to shape her academic work. When asked to write a research proposal as part of her university exams, lameness identification felt like the obvious topic. But she didn't stop there.
"I became very interested in the area and decided to continue the project outside of university time to find some answers."
The result was a survey of over 500 UK horse and pony owners — and offers some genuinely eye-opening insights that anyone who has a horse can learn from.
What the Research Involved
The survey, co-authored with D.J. Rutherford, was distributed via social media in 2023 and structured around three themes: owners' confidence in identifying lameness; their actual ability to spot it; and their knowledge of clinical signs and where they turn for information.
Rather than relying solely on self-reported experience, participants were asked to watch six short videos of horses moving — some sound, some with varying degrees of forelimb or hindlimb lameness — and identify what they saw. The use of video proved popular, with owners engaging enthusiastically with this format, and the findings directly informed the development of lameness resources created in partnership with the British Horse Society.
The Results
509 owners completed the survey | 50.6% correctly identified a sound horse | 32% correctly identified hindlimb lameness | 8.9% correctly identified bilateral lameness |
Forelimb lameness fared best, with around half of respondents correctly identifying it, which is perhaps unsurprising, given that the classic "head nod" is widely taught and discussed.
Just 32% of participants correctly identified hindlimb lameness, and a striking 8.9% correctly identified bilateral lameness — where both limbs are affected and the horse may appear deceptively even.
"Only 7.35% of respondents selected pain expressions as a clinical sign of lameness — suggesting owners are overwhelmingly focused on movement patterns rather than the horse's wider communication."
When it came to what signs owners were looking for, the most commonly selected were the head nod for forelimb lameness, and hip hike or asymmetry for hindlimb lameness. Both are well-recognised indicators — but the research highlights a significant blind spot - pain expressions. Changes in facial expression, ear position, eye tension and body posture are increasingly understood by equine scientists as important indicators of discomfort, yet only a tiny fraction of owners included these in their thinking.
The Confidence Gap
Perhaps the most thought-provoking finding concerns the relationship between how confident owners feel and how well they actually perform. Respondents rated their confidence as 4 out of 5 for forelimb lameness, dropping to 3 out of 5 for hindlimb and 2 out of 5 for bilateral — which does, in part, reflect a realistic assessment of difficulty. However, the correlation coefficient between confidence and correct identification was only 0.360, suggesting a relatively weak link between the two.
In other words, feeling confident doesn't necessarily mean you'll spot it. This is a genuinely important finding for horse welfare.
Where Owners Turn for Information
The survey also asked respondents about their sources of knowledge. The top three were personal experience, their vet, and their coach or trainer. Unsurprisingly, given how much time most owners spend with their horses, lived experience ranks highly — but it also has limits, particularly when it comes to subtler or bilateral presentations that are difficult to spot.
The good news? 95.9% of respondents said they were interested in improving their ability to detect lameness. And when asked what resources they would find most useful, the top answers were video-based content and practical experience — such as talks and demonstrations from vets. This gives us a clear steer for the kinds of evidence-based education that could make a real difference.
Hindlimb and bilateral lameness are significantly harder for owners to identify than forelimb lameness
Pain expressions are rarely used as a diagnostic cue, despite growing scientific evidence of their relevance
Confidence and ability do not correlate strongly — owners may overestimate their detection skills
Nearly all owners want to improve — and are most receptive to video content and vet-led demonstrations
Turning findings into action
With the results of the research, Jade worked with the British Horse Society to help develop practical lameness resources informed directly by what owners said they needed — video-led, accessible, and targeted at the specific gaps the survey identified. You can find those resources on the BHS website.
"Without knowing the barriers owners face, improving owner recognition is difficult," Jade says, "meaning lameness will continue to be a highly prevalent welfare issue. The results from this study help us understand the knowledge gaps — so we can develop evidence-based resources focused on helping owners improve their recognition and understanding of lameness, leading to earlier identification, earlier diagnosis, and faster access to treatment."
An Amazing Experience
Jade entered our poster competition partly for the excuse to attend a conference that aligned so closely with her research interests — but also because she wanted to share her findings with an audience who genuinely cared.
"I wanted the opportunity to present my research to other people with a passion for improving equine lameness and welfare," she says.
"It meant a lot to me that a board of such experienced and knowledgeable people took an interest in my study. It was an honour to receive my prize on the same stage as the weekend's fantastic speakers."
Jade was also generous in her appreciation of her fellow competitors: she particularly highlighted Jenna Payne's study into the effect of rider weight and pony age on the mechanical nociceptive thresholds of the epaxial muscles and heart rate variability of Exmoor ponies as a standout piece of work from the weekend's poster presentations.
Could Your Research Feature at Our 2027 Conference?
We were thrilled to receive such a strong field of entries for our Scientific Poster Competition at the 2026 Horses Inside Out Conference — and Jade's work is a wonderful example of the kind of rigorous, owner-focused research that deserves a wider audience.
The competition will return again at our 2027 conference, and we'd love to hear from researchers, students and clinicians working on topics relevant to the conference theme of Wellness and Welfare. Keep an eye on our website and social media channels for details on how to enter — and start thinking about what you'd like to share.
To help you get started, we’re hosting a FREE webinar with Professor Meriel Moore-Colyer. Mastering Scientific Posters for Wellness and Welfare is on Monday 1st June 2026 at
6.30pm (BST). During this FREE webinar, Meriel will walk you through the process, share topic ideas, and show you exactly how to create a compelling poster.
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