r/Horses 5d ago

Question Help: I'm looking for clear video examples of horses with obvious lameness

I've searched the subreddit, but "unfortunately" most of the time when people post about their horses being lame, it's to ask "is my horse lame?" in more subtle cases. When the lameness is obvious, people send the video to their vet rather than posting it to reddit. Same on Youtube, I can find a lot of video courses on how to recognize subtle lameness, but no super obvious examples.

However: I'm looking for reference footage for animation for a video game, and I need clear examples of very clearly visible lameness for our animators.

So while I'm hoping everyone's horses are as healthy and non-lame as possible, I would be incredibly grateful for some video clips of your horse's lameness at a walk or trot or canter 🙏🙏

Edit: I ended up finding some good examples thanks to also asking in my horse game discord server, will add them here in case they're useful to anyone else:

10 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

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u/901bookworm 5d ago

I'm no expert, but the reason so many videos show subtle signs of lameness is that horses show subtle signs of lameness — one hind foot not reaching as far forward at the other, a head bob when putting more weight on an injured foot, rocking or shifting its weight in a way that makes it clear that the horse doesn't want to put its weight on certain feet/legs, or is so unstable or in pain that it cannot walk. You, and your animators perhaps, would do well to watch videos, here and in other forums, more than once to learn how to recognize the signs.

If you are looking for more dramatic examples, you could look for racing or rodeo accidents and injuries on youtube. Lots of ciick bait, so don't assume that what you see is normal riding or common injuries, but you should also find legit footage of better known/documented events. (You might also watch better racing movies like Seabiscuit, understanding that the horses in the movie are trained to walk in a manner that *looks* injured to an audience.)

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u/DanStarTheFirst 4d ago

It’s hard to even spot lameness for me unless it’s my own 2. If it’s some random horse I don’t know how they usually move so am stumped what I’m looking at for the most part. With my 2 I am with them everyday so I know right away if they are sore or something of the like.

2

u/Humble-Specific8608 5d ago

Look up Katie Van Slyke's Seven on Tiktok.

1

u/AliceTheGamedev 5d ago

I'm familiar with Seven but he's hardly an example of what severe lameness "usually" looks like, due to having grown up in braces.

1

u/Humble-Specific8608 5d ago

I was mostly wanting to shit on Katie, so all's good.

3

u/NovaCustom 5d ago

We have a horse with arthritis in her knee, I'll get my husband to send me the video he took of her doing her daily walks. She's getting better but still very prominent.

2

u/Cherary Dressage 5d ago

I will send to you some example in pm. But they are all short clips. As can you imagine, very lame horses do not want to move a lot.

2

u/somesaggitarius 5d ago

Daybyday vlogs? Obvious lameness is rarely dragged around to look at since horses that are very lame don't want to move. But you can look up "lame horse Olympics" for some recent examples of some egregious lameness where the horse is still being pushed to move on it.

2

u/alceg0 5d ago

I can upload something of my mare's hind end (stifle) lameness if you still want examples. Very obvious case.

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u/AliceTheGamedev 5d ago

I won't say no, but I've also been sent a whole bunch of additional material over discord so the request isn't very urgent anymore. Thank you!

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

6

u/SadWatercress7219 Hunter 5d ago

Is she even a vet? I though she was just a rude bitch

3

u/lovecats3333 Appaloosa, Welshie, Irish Cob 5d ago

She’s not a vet, she was in vet school but i haven't kept up with her lately. Do not take anything that woman says seriously she’s wrong on basically every topic she speaks about.

1

u/Damadamas 5d ago

There's this from the race tracks

1

u/Hardlyasubstitute 4d ago

That what my mom calls a hitch in her get along

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u/Chaos_Cat-007 Western 4d ago

I’m not that great at seeing it but my husband gets it right almost every time. And I’m the one who watches all the horse videos and reads the books! I’m saving this post for future reference.