BY KATARZYNA BECKER A AND DOROTA LEWCZUK B
TABLES: THE AUTHORS
Article full title: Phenotypic correlations between jump and gaits characteristics measured by inertial measurement units in horse jumping training - preliminary results.
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 showjumping 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).
Janczarek et al. (2013) found during assessing jumping horses' ability at an approach, the position of the poll, as well as the angle of neck position are particularly important. If the horse jumps optimally and has good timing, the tip of the parabola is directly above the obstacle (Topolinski, 2013). Based on current scientific research, a large pool of possible performance-relevant parameters can be selected (Fercher, 2017).
The horse jump can be divided into five phases — approach, take-off, suspension, landing, and departure. Each of these parts has specific determining factors, which show either a mechanical or a mathematical relationship with jumping quality (Powers and Harrison, 1999). Finally, an adequately trained and specialist bred horse is the one promising good results in equestrian sports (Gregic et al., 2021).
Dependencies of subjectively assessed jumping and dressage traits were investigated both at phenotypic (Molina et al. 1999; Olsson et al., 2000) and genetic levels (Ricard et al., 2000, Hellsten et al., 2006, 2009; Ruhlmann et al., 2009). However, phenotypic results are less available (Rustin et al., 2009) and less objective (Lewczuk, 2013). It seems that their importance is underestimated, although they may be very useful for horse users. They support understanding of training methods.
Connections between dressage and jumping traits in different training methods and training progress could help to identify proper training methods. That is of special importance, as genetic correlations between dressage and showjumping traits are reported mostly as negative (Rovere et al., 2017) and it is not necessarily adequate for phenotypic observations, as phenotypic correlations present the connections between traits within a specific environment. At an advanced competition level horses need to cover all obstacles without penalty points in the possible shortest time (Gego, 2006; FEI Jumping Rules 26th edition chapter VI, art.235-239). This requires not only jumping potential, but also rideability and good gaits, at least canter. Such research on the phenotypic background, is not only rare, but also based only on subjective judge scoring or linear profiling. There is a lack of such correlations in biomechanics of sport horses, although considerable knowledge is available (Clayton and Hoobs, 2017; Fercher, 2017)...
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