Abstract
In riding, most biomechanical studies have focused on the description of the horse locomotion in unridden condition. In this study, we draw the prospect of how the basic principles established in inter-personal coordination by the theory of Coordination Dynamics may provide a conceptual and methodological framework for understanding the horse-rider coupling. The recent development of mobile technologies allows combined horse and rider recordings during long lasting natural events such as endurance races. Six international horse-rider dyads were thus recorded during a 120 km race by using two tri-axial accelerometers placed on the horses and riders, respectively. The analysis concentrated on their combined vertical displacements. The obtained shapes and angles of Lissajous plots together with values of relative phase between horse and rider displacements at lower reversal point allowed us to characterize four coordination patterns, reflecting the use of two riding techniques per horse's gait (trot and canter). The present study shows that the concepts, methods and tools of self-organizing dynamic system approach offer new directions for understanding horse-rider coordination. The identification of the horse-rider coupling patterns constitutes a firm basis to further study the coalition of multiple constraints that determine their emergence and their dynamics in endurance race.
Highlights
During the last 30 years, the growing interest in horse racing and riding activities has stimulated scientific research in biomechanics and physiology of equine locomotion
In the present study, we aimed to provide a method to characterize the dynamics of the horse-rider system using simple and unified representations of macroscopic variables capturing the horse-rider coupling (HRC) in the various contextual situations of an endurance race
This study had three main objectives. It aimed to validate a measurement system combining the relative horse and rider movements recorded by two 3D accelerometers in natural situation of endurance race competition
Summary
During the last 30 years, the growing interest in horse racing and riding activities has stimulated scientific research in biomechanics and physiology of equine locomotion (see [1], for an overview). Previous studies examining horse’s gait during successive strides have demonstrated the higher repeatability of the acceleration shape along the vertical (dorsoventral) as compared to the longitudinal (antero-posterior) axis; the latter one being more influenced by the propelling work of each limb cycle [9,10] Based on these observations, the present analysis of the horse and rider interactions concentrated on their displacements along the vertical axis: dorsoventral for the horse vs craniocaudal for the rider. In a recent paper [5], Wolframm and collaborators used similar measurement tools to study horse gaits and riding techniques during a dressage race that is, walk, rising trot, sitting trot and sitting canter They demonstrated that in these controlled situations of short durations (gait and techniques were imposed to horse-rider dyads over few loops of 20 meters), accelerometer devices were appropriate to record simple kinematic variables, which allowed describing horse-rider coordination patterns. The present study aims to extend the use of accelerometer device to a more natural (i.e. uncontrolled and long duration) situation of endurance race, in which patterns of horse-rider coordination are not imposed by experimenters and, can only be detected from blind analysis of raw data
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