This research involved several stages and studies. To choose the movements to include in the new outcome measure equine clinicians were surveyed - you can read all about it in the journal Animals: 

   Visually Assessing Equine Quality of Movement: A Survey to Identify Key Movement and Patient-Specific Measures

   Annette G. Bowen; Gillian Tabor; Raphael Labens; Hayley Randle.

   Animals 2023, Volume 13, Issue 18, 2822   https://www.mdpi.com/2467242

We then used a Delphi process (repeated surveys of an expert panel) to create a scoring system and directives to guide scoring. Discussion groups suggested further improvements such as ways to standardise the movements transforming them into movement tests. The outcome measure was then pilot tested resulting in several refinements for ease of use. This became the Equine Quality of Movement Score (EQoMS for short) consisting of 30 standardised in-hand movement tests, that can be scored and commented on - you can read all about it in the open access Journal of Equine Rehabilitation.

   Development of a grading system for visually assessing equine quality of movement. Bowen, A. G., Tabor, G., Labens, R., & 

   Randle, H. (2025). Journal of Equine Rehabilitation, 3, 100024. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eqre.2025.100024 

The survey and Delphi study were also featured in Four Front, the magazine of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Animal Therapy, pages 27,28,29. 

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A reliabilty study was then conducted inconjunction with collecting some instrumented gait analysis data to assess validity. The EQoMS was found to have excellent intra-rater reliability meaning it can be used by a single clinician. When it came to inter-rater reliability there is further work to be done, while the group of 6 experts agreed on the ranking of the horses relative to each other the absolute scores for each horse differed considerably. This is not unusual as assessing movement is subjective and each individual places different value on specific features. It would be useful to conduct further discussion groups to help move towards concensus. - You can read the full results of the reliability study in the open access Journal of Equine Rehab.

   The Equine Quality of Movement Score: How reliable is it? Bowen, A. G., Tabor, G., Labens, R., Douglas, M., & Randle, H. (2025).

   Journal of Equine Rehabilitation, 3, 100023. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eqre.2025.100023 

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If you would like to upskill your ability to assess quality of movement you can sign up to the Equine Quality of Movement Score online training program here, it includes detailed explanations of the terminology and movement tests, practice videos with benchmark scores and comments from the experts and the EQoMS Assessment Form ready for use as a PDF and other templates.