Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Dressage schooling is not a subject that rests on science, it is a matter of dependable experience. So far there hasn't been so much research about it, but more and more is done. Especially the interaction between rider and horse is a nearly uninvestigated field. Riding skills is much about having the right position, and having the horses head and neck in different positions, but there are no research done that support or deny that this old "knowledge" is for the best for the horse.

This study was performed to evaluate if the head and neck position of the horse, and the velocity, has any influence on the position of the rider.

In the study, seven horses with riders participated, six Grand Prix dressage horses and one dressage horse competing at intermediate level. Before being included in the study, all the horses were examined by a veterinarian. The horse and rider was recorded with twelve ProReflex® cameras, when trotting on a treadmill, provided with 85 spherical light reflecting markers on the rider, saddle, saddle mat and on the horse's head, neck, back and some joints. The cameras registered the three-dimensional movement and the data obtained was worked up and evaluated in Qualisys Track Manager, Matlab and Excel. The horses and riders were recorded with the horse in six different head-and-neck-positions (HNP) in sitting and rising trot.

For this particular study, four of the markers were chosen; two placed on the saddle, one on the horse's lumbar vertebrae number three and one on the rider's sacrum. To see if there where a difference, two different situations were compared; one with two different HNP, HNP1 and HNP2, and one with the same HNP but with the horse in two different speeds, all in sitting trot. In HNP1 the head and neck were unrestrained, and in HNP2 the horse was with the neck raised, bridge of the nose in front of the vertical. In the velocity situation, the horse was in HNP2. The results is presented in curves, based on the step cycle normalized into 101 %, from the point when left forelimb is put to the ground, to that point when it does so again. One line shows the average result of the seven riders and horses, and there are two standard deviation lines, one positive and one negative, and the areas with significant difference is marked at the baseline.

The findings are that both different HNP and velocity has an influence on the rider. The positive and negative standard deviation curves in both velocity and HNP situations, showed a bigger difference during stance, and in the beginning of the swing phase, than in the middle and end of the swing phase, suggesting that it's harder to follow the horse in this part of the stride cycle.

With the horse in HNP2 compared with HNP1, the rider follows the horse with less movement between the markers. One explanation to that can be that the rider probably gets more support from the reins, and therefore follows the horse more easily. Other explanations might be, as recently showed in other studies, that if the horse is on normal reins, there is less movement in the lumbar part of the back (Rhodin et al (2005)), and that the lumbar part has more flexion (Gomez et al (2006)), than when the horse is free.

In the velocity-study it showed that if the velocity increases, the rider gets more movement in vertical direction during stance, but less in horizontal between stances. This probably has to do with the resulting force from the horseback to the rider, being more vertical in a higher speed and more horizontal in a lower speed.

What effect those findings have on the horse we don't know, but some other things that would be interesting to know, is for example what kind of forces that acts between the rider and horse during this time, and also how the lateral movement of the rider differs.