The experimentally determined thresholds for Lameness Locator® metrics should be thought of as the boundaries of reference ranges for a heterogenous sample of horses considered to be subjectively not lame (i.e. grade 0 on the AAEP scale). Thresholds are not meant to be considered as hard lines drawn in the sand. However, the term "threshold" conveys a binary meaning to many people - lame on one side of the line, not lame on the other side - even though it is not necessarily true.
For this reason, Equinosis will be transitioning to the use of the term "reference range" which will replace the term "threshold" in most instances/usages in future versions of Lameness Locator. We hope this alerts the reader that the measurement is a gauge of the quantification of asymmetry.
To review, Q thresholds were determined experimentally using a relatively narrowly-controlled environment, but a variable, heterogeneous sample, consisting of horses of many ages, sizes, breeds, and use, with subjective evaluations for lameness ranging from moderate (grade 3 on the AAEP scale) to no lameness (grade 0 on the AAEP scale), taking care to obtain data with low stride by stride and trial to trial variability. The thresholds were the range (95% confidence intervals) of the inertial sensor measures predicted when the mean subjective AAEP score from at least 3 veterinary evaluations was 0.