Equine Biomechanics Program

Development of equine research and course work in the field of biomechanics has been successfully integrated into the equine science program in the UGA Department of Animal and Dairy Science this year. Equine biomechanics and gait analysis is a growing area of interest in the performance horse industry and equine academia. A software program, OnTrack Equine, has been used in several equine lecture and laboratory classes and has been implemented to conduct undergraduate research projects in biomechanics. This has allowed for the restructuring of the course into a more scientific course on equine anatomy and biomechanics that better fits the interest of pre-veterinary and equine industry oriented students. It has also allowed for the implementation of undergraduate and graduate research projects that should yield journal manuscripts and presentations at scientific meetings. Finally, these topics have been incorporated into existing UGA Cooperative Extension programs to expand on these programs, thereby generating money for future equine Extension programming.