Equine lameness expert veterinarians from the global ISELP community (International Society of Equine Locomotor Pathology) participated in a recent survey from SLEIP, an equine gait analysis company. There were 114 global respondents in the survey conducted May 21-June 21, 2025. (The 2025 Equine Lameness Insights report is available to download here.)

One of the most interesting findings from the survey was that 95% of respondents said they frequently or occasionally see cases where early veterinary intervention could have prevented a more serious issue.

Key Findings at a Glance

Following is a list of top findings from the survey results:

  • Lameness remains a top clinical concern, with joint disease and soft tissue injuries most frequently cited as causes.
  • Early lameness detection could change outcomes.
  • Younger vets face confidence gaps.
  • Early-career vets report lower confidence in detecting subtle lameness and have a higher self-reported risk of leaving the profession due to workload and stress.
  • Collaboration is frequent, but fragmented.
  • While most vets collaborate regularly with farriers and trainers, differing approaches and lack of shared data are key barriers.
  • Remote consultations are the norm but are unstructured.
  • More than 75% of vets receive informal video requests from clients weekly or daily but lack structured tools to support or charge for this work.
  • 63% of vets cite managing client expectations as the most common difficulty in practice, ahead of long hours, financial pressure, and staffing shortages.

Survey results concerning gait analysis showed that:

  • Gait analysis is gaining ground.
  • 44% of vets expect objective gait analysis to become a standard diagnostic tool within five years, especially the vets handling high volumes of lameness cases.
  • More than 80% of the vets say access to historical gait data for individual equine patients would be helpful in their work.

Risk Factors Are Shifting

More than half of veterinary respondents reported an increasing trend in lameness associated with genetic predisposition (54%) and training load (50%) over the past five years. Nearly one-third (32%) have seen a rise in cases they attribute to changes in sports surfaces.

Collaboration with Equine Professionals

The survey results showed 51% of veterinarians collaborate with other equine professionals weekly. The results also showed that 75% of vets reported at least monthly collaborating with other equine professionals.

When asked who they collaborate with most on lameness cases, the top roles were farriers (93%), trainers (55%), physiotherapists/veterinary physiotherapists (29%), and chiropractors (16%).

Challenges to professional collaboration centered on differing approaches or opinions as a barrier. Thirty percent reported a lack of a structured communication system. A further 16% pointed to limited access to shared documentation/data.

Owner-Vet Interaction

The survey showed that more than 75% of veterinarians said they received consultation requests daily or weekly from horse owners asking for digital informal assessments.

Veterinarians said they responded by:

  • 67% provided a brief response right away;
  • 24% asked for an in-person exam;
  • 0% reported ignoring these messages even when non-urgent.

Common Diagnoses of Lameness

The most common causes of lameness reported by veterinarians were:

  • 86.8% joint disease
  • 52.6% tendon injuries
  • 42.1% back and pelvic issues
  • 35.5% hoof issues
  • 24.6% neck issues
  • 19.3% other soft tissue issues
  • 3.5% neurological

When asked what they thought were increasing causes of lameness, veterinarians responded:

  • 54.4% neck issues
  • 51.8% back and pelvic issues
  • 19.3% tendon injuries
  • 17.5% joint disease
  • 16.7% neurological issues
  • 14.9% other soft tissue issues
  • 11.4% hoof issues

Survey Participants by Geography

The ISELP survey respondents came from the following countries/regions:

  • Australia: 1
  • Austria: 1
  • Belgium: 8
  • Canada 3
  • Czechia: 1
  • Egypt: 1
  • France: 7
  • Germany: 12
  • Italy: 4
  • New Zealand: 3
  • Nordics (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland): 13
  • Portugal: 2
  • Switzerland: 1
  • The Netherlands: 3
  • UAE: 1
  • UK/Ireland: 14
  • USA: 33

Further Content

Sign up for My Senior Horse’s FREE newsletter to get the latest information about equids 15 years and older delivered straight to your inbox! 

  • Kimberly S. Brown and Jewell

    Kimberly S. Brown is an award-winning writer and publisher. She is the Editorial Director for My Senior Horse. Brown spent 10 years at Equine Network, parent company of My Senior Horse. Prior to that she worked for three years in equine nutrition after she retired from nearly 30 years working at The Blood-Horse. Brown spent the last 15 years of her time at that organization creating and developing The Horse and TheHorse.com.

    View all posts