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Roll On: Balance Not Only Predictor Of Success For Horseback Riding

Though it might seem that good balance would be the only predictor of the ability to ride horses well, new research has shown that the ability to roll the pelvis is a better indicator of riding ability, reports The Horse.

Riders who can roll their pelvis from side to side without moving their body or legs are more likely to have horses that are happy and perform well. Riders can test this unmounted, by sitting on an exercise ball and rolling their hips toward their ribs; the idea is that those with the ability to roll the pelvis well will be able to do this without moving their legs or upper body.

Dr. Mette Uldahl of Vejle Hestepraksis in Denmark and the country's head Fédération Equestre Internationale veterinarian recently worked with a research team to study the relationship between balance and riding success. The researchers asked 20 female dressage riders to sit on an inflated exercise ball. They were then asked to roll the ball left, right and in circles using only their pelvis without engaging their legs or upper body. The team also asked the riders to balance on the ball, with legs lifted and arms outstretched, for 30 seconds.

The researchers also investigated the rider's performance and their horse's heart rate, stress level, and behavior during a dressage test ridden in an indoor arena. A dressage judge also scored each pair, offering notes on the duo's quality and harmony.

The scientists found that riders' ability to roll the exercise ball correlated with their quality and harmony score. The team also found that riders with a greater ability to balance themselves on an exercise ball without using their feet actually earned lower quality and harmony scores. These riders' horses also showed more conflict behaviors while being ridden.

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The researchers conclude that though balance is important in riding and should be practiced, it's important that the type of balance practiced is that which best creates harmony with the horse.

Scientists Confirm Horseback Riding A Viable Mobility Treatment For Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) affects around two out of every 1000 children born worldwide. Physical therapy is the foremost way of improving movement, balance and posture in children with CP. Research has shown that hippotherapy, a form of physical therapy involving horseback riding, is effective for treating CP. But how exactly does it help? In a recent study, researchers from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) in South Korea explored this question and provided insightful answers as well as a baseline for future research.

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a common disability among children, characterized by abnormal gait patterns and the inability to maintain posture and balance. While the condition is incurable, physical therapy treatments can go a long way in improving movement and balance. One such treatment approach is hippotherapy (HPOT), which uses horseback riding to improve functional mobility in children with CP. Although supported by scientific studies as an effective treatment approach for (CP), there is, unfortunately, little data concerning how HPOT results in improvement.

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Recently, a team of researchers from Korea and the United States addressed this question, investigating physical interaction metrics between horses and children with CP during HPOT. “My original research interests lie in the rehabilitation of people with neurological impairment, specifically gait and balance. However, I did not know about hippotherapy until 2016. After realizing how effective it is in treating children with CP, I was motivated to explore it further,” explains Dr. Pilwon Hur, who headed the study. This paper was made available online on September 6, 2021, and was published in Volume 18 Issue 132 of the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

The research team studied four children with CP over the course of eight physical therapy sessions. They placed sensors on the horses and children to record their movements and track their acceleration and angular velocity. They found that the data from the horses and children began to resemble each other as time progressed, indicating a synchronization between the horse and the rider. They also gave the children mobility tests after each session and observed improvement in their motor skills at the end of the experiment.

“We found that physical interaction between the children with CP and the horses, characterized by the children adapting to the horse's movement and vice versa, is extremely important for the rehabilitation to be effective,” says Dr. Hur.

Excited by these findings, the team hopes their work will provide a baseline for further research on HPOT. “To the best of my knowledge, ours is the first study to quantify these interactions and relate them to effectiveness,” says Dr. Hur. “Such an understanding would help us optimize physical therapy programs, improving the quality of life for children with CP.”

The post Scientists Confirm Horseback Riding A Viable Mobility Treatment For Cerebral Palsy appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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A Racing Saddle On The Cross Country Course? Meyerhoff Shows How It’s Done

Bobby Meyerhoff recently finished 16th in the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI4*-S. While his results are impressive, even more awe-inspiring was the saddle in which he rode: Meyerhoff, aboard Lumumba, completed all three phases of competition in a racing exercise saddle.

Meyerhoff first tried riding in the bare bones saddle last fall, on Fortuna, another of his competition mounts. He found that the petite mare, who was often back sore, went much more comfortable in the race training saddle. Meyerhoff says that the saddle allows him to truly feel his horse—all along their back—and forces him to ride better, as there is a very specific area of the saddle where he must ride to stay in balance. He compares riding in the treeless race training saddle to riding bareback, but with stirrups.

Meyerhoff first used the unusual saddle in competition at the Tryon CCI4*-L in both dressage and showjumping, but he competed in the cross-country phase of the Kentucky event in the saddle as well. A formidable cross-country course in a traditional saddle, the weather made conditions even trickier, but Meyerhoff persevered in his unconventional tack to finish with no jumping faults and just 31.2 seconds outside of optimum time.

Study Finds That Trailering Is A Full-Body Workout For Horses

Many studies have been done on a horse's preferred position while traveling in a horse trailer, but not much is known on how the horse's body reacts while the trailer is in motion.

A research team led by Dr. Robert Colborne created a horse trailer that allowed them to study how a horse's body moves to compensate for trailer movement. They found that a horse's legs play a key role in dampening road vibrations from the trailer floor and helping a horse maintain his balance.

The study trailer had fitted force plates that allowed researchers to measure precisely how a horse moves in response to braking, turning, acceleration, and constant speed horses experience on a typical trailer trip. Two study horses were taken on a 56-mile trip that took 58 minutes to complete; it covered both city and country roads.

They discovered that in total, the horse's bodies moved over 228 and 320 feet vertically during the trip. Though these values seem large, the horse's movement was still less than the vertical movement of the trailer floor. This indicates that horse's use their legs as springs to dampen trailer vibrations.

The horses also adjusted their bodies horizontally to deal with braking. The team found that the horses moved 745 and 797 feet horizontally over the course of the trip. The horses swayed over 11 inches back and forth and side to side during the trip.

It is expected that as horses become more seasoned travelers that their energy expenditure to stay upright and maintain balance would decrease.