BY KATARZYNA BECKERA; DOROTA LEWCZUKB
TABLES: THE AUTHORS

New forms of sport horse training are being developed constantly and result in new demands related to requirements of equestrian sports. Inertial measurement units (IMU) seem to be an important tool to fulfil these urgent needs in monitoring of training, thus broadening the knowledge on motion parameters.

High correlations between gaits and jump characteristics are expected because even specialized jumpers need quality of movement to fulfil temporal performance requirements. Twelve sport horses (5-11 years) of different training levels were examined during regular training under high-level riders in two training centers. They covered a 3-4 km distance overcoming up to 30 obstacles where the first 15 jumps were analyzed. They jumped randomly chosen obstacles of the known characteristics from the basic, perpendicular approach. Jumping and movements parameters (179 observations) were measured using Seaver® devices based on inertial measurement unit technique.
The following jump data were analyzed: height, length, reserve, frequency of approach, angle at take-off, acceleration of take-off, velocity, spatial shifting and energy by landing. The device measured 10 movement parameters. Frequency, elevation and regularity of walk, trot and canter, as well as trot symmetry were available. Relationships between parameters were analyzed using Pearson/Spearmann correlations (SAS, CORR) and partial correlations corrected for fixed effects of obstacle type and height, successive jump number, training center/rider and horse age-experience (SAS, GLM).
Pearson and Spearmann correlations within jumping parameters (-0.48 – 0.95) and within gaits parameters (-0.64 – 0.78) were significant at least for p<0.05. Obtained partial correlations between gaits and jumping (above 0.3) showed that some gait characteristics are connected with jump quality. However, most partial correlations were low. Moderate values were noted for jump and canter frequencies (0.44), which is treated in horse selection as a jump determinant and walk regularity and three jumping parameters (0.33-36). 1. Introduction New forms of sport horse training are being developed constantly and result in new demands related to requirements of equestrian sports. Inertial measurement units (IMU) seem to be an important tool to fulfil these urgent needs in monitoring of training, thus broadening the knowledge on motion parameters. The monitoring of training allow to control progress in jumping and movement parameters by observation of changes, including direction of their changes. The IMU measurements of horse movement kinematics and dynamics are increasingly commonly accepted among both amateurs and equestrian professionals (Becker and Lewczuk, 2020; Gmel et al., 2020). Horses are animals with considerable athletic abilities and an extensive gait repertoire in spite of their large size and body mass (Clayton, 2016). Recognition of these skills is of special importance during different stages of specific, individual training in equestrian sports used after general background training. The success in equestrian sport requires mutual coordination in movements and proper dynamic in show jumping competitions (Gregic et al., 2016). Technological progress provides new opportunities in horse evaluation. It is expected to identify movement parameters connected with "good jump" characteristics, facilitating prediction of quality in jump horses. Leguillette et al. (2020) stated that each horse requires individual methods, especially in terms of the workload between jumps and flat work, which is currently unknown, but which needs to be balanced. In jumping competitions, the predisposition to discipline seems defined by the quality of canter, which can be a good forecast of success in sport, as an indicator of imbalance is correlated negatively on the genetic level with horse performance (0.2) (Becker et al., 2013)... CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE IN THE ONLINE EDITION OF BREEDING NEWS