SKILLED RIDERS MANAGE HORSE GAIT COMPLEXITY THROUGH A GAIT TRANSITION WHILST ALSO MAINTAINING STABLE HORSE-RIDER COORDINATION VARIABILITY

Authors

Celeste A. Wilkins, Hartpury UniversityFollow
Franky Mulloy, University of LincolnFollow

Category

Other

Document Type

Paper

Abstract

Equestrian riders aim to cue smooth transitions between horse gaits. This study aimed to investigate whether competitive horse rider (n=10) decrease horse gait regularity and increase horse-rider coordination variability in the region of a gait transition (n=6; both walk-trot, and trot-canter) relative to baseline walk, trot and canter. Resultant accelerations from IMUs affixed to the horse’s girth and rider’s pelvis were calculated. Horse gait regularity was quantified as multiscale sample entropy (MSSE) of the pelvis. Horse-rider coordination variability (Coord_var) was quantified as the standard deviation of the horse-rider continuous relative phase. Pre-transition MSSE did not increase; post-transition MSSE significantly decreased (paired t-tests; pvar were found. Therefore, horse gait or horse-rider Coord_var does not increase in a transition.

Recommended Citation

Wilkins, Celeste A. and Mulloy, Franky (2023) "SKILLED RIDERS MANAGE HORSE GAIT COMPLEXITY THROUGH A GAIT TRANSITION WHILST ALSO MAINTAINING STABLE HORSE-RIDER COORDINATION VARIABILITY," ISBS Proceedings Archive: Vol. 41: Iss. 1, Article 112.
Available at: https://commons.nmu.edu/isbs/vol41/iss1/112