Developing a scoring system and directives for equine quality of movement

Aim: An outcome measure is being developed for equine quality of movement during in-hand assessment as
part of performance management or rehabilitation. This study looked at selecting a suitable anchor word
and scoring system for grading quality of movement in horses. Additionally, aiming to create a list of the
most important features to guide scoring of each movement, to be refined into directives.
Design: Repeated, online survey of an expert panel (three round Delphi process).
Method: Expert physiotherapists were invited to be part of the Delphi process. Summary results (descriptive
statistics and major themes) were presented back to the panel in subsequent survey rounds.
Results: ‘Quality of movement’ became evident as the preferred anchor word after two survey rounds. The
chosen grading words were ‘optimal, good, mild, moderate, and severe movement dysfunction.’ The number
of important features was reduced over three rounds, with features reaching >75% agreement used to
inform the development of the directives over the subsequent rounds.
Conclusion: A 5-point word and number scoring system was chosen, however, selecting the most important
features and writing directives proved challenging. Achieving specific meaningful guidance needs balancing
with concise, generic language. The resulting scoring system and directives will now undergo pilot testing
before reliability trials.
Key Practice Points:
• Translating observational expertise of practitioners into explicit language is challenging.
• The meaning ascribed to directives depends on the task and the experience of the assessor.
• A scoring system for quality of movement is being taken forward for pilot testing.