Horseback riding is an increasingly popular activity among today's youth, providing them with the opportunity to learn responsibility and respect for animals. However, it can also be associated with severe injury, of which many physicians are unaware. In 2002, there were an estimated 13,400 emergency department visits nationwide for horse-related injuries among children younger than 15 years. W...

The increasing incidence of horse-riding accidents, which are often severe in nature, prompted a pilot study of a questionnaire designed to elucidate the cause of such accidents. It was hoped that, on a larger scale, the information gleaned would highlight possible preventative measures which might improve the safety of an important recreational pursuit enjoyed by young and old from many walks ...

With the application of automation, a horse jump can be controlled with the push of a button, or even a remote control. This enables the rider to adjust the jump to suit their needs while still on their horse. The objective of this work is to design and build a wireless remote motor controller which will be applied to a prototype horse jump. The user will be able to control the forward and reve...

To investigate the effect of increasing velocity within one gait on horse and rider movement and to describe the resulting changes in saddle forces, seven ridden dressage horses were examined on an instrumented treadmill. The speed ranged between 1.3-1.8 m/s at walk and 2.6-3.6 m/s at trot. Kinematics of the horse and rider, vertical ground reaction forces and saddle forces were measured simult...

Therapeutic horse riding or hippotherapy is used as an intervention for treating individuals with mental and physical disabilities. Equine-assisted interventions are based on the hypothesis that the movement of the horse's pelvis during horseback riding resembles human ambulation, and thus provides motor and sensory inputs similar to those received during human walking. However, this hypothesis...

This paper constructed a database of the national representative level of a professional horse-rider by wearing a motion-capture suit attached with 16 inertial sensors under an inertial sensor-based wireless network environment, then made a visual comparative analysis through a few methods (graphical and statistical) on the values of all motion features (elbow angle, knee angle, knee-elbow dist...

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY A comprehensive kinematic description of rider and saddle movements is not yet present in the scientific literature. OBJECTIVE To describe saddle and rider movements in a group of high-level dressage horses and riders. METHOD Seven high-level dressage horses and riders were subjected to kinematic measurements while performing collected trot on a treadmill. For a...

Pony Club is one of the leading junior equestrian organisations in the world, and was established to teach young people the many aspects of horsemanship. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of the health and performance of Pony Club horses from the perspective of their owners. In-depth interviews were conducted with Pony Club members at two sites in Australia, and topics relating...

This study investigated the effects of rider weight in the BW ratio (BWR) range common for Icelandic horses (20% to 35%), on stride parameters in tölt in Icelandic horses. The kinematics of eight experienced Icelandic school horses were measured during an incremental exercise test using a high-speed camera (300 frames/s). Each horse performed five phases (642 m each) in tölt at a BWR between ri...