Egenvall, Agneta and Byström, Anna and Roepstorff, Lars and Rhodin, Marie and Weishaupt, Michael A. and van Weeren, Rene and Clayton, Hilary M.
(2020).
Withers vertical movement asymmetry in dressage horses walking in different head -neck positions with and without riders.
Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research. 36
, 72-83
[Research article]
![]() |
PDF
2MB |
Abstract
The superimposed influences of different head and neck positions (HNPs) and rider effects on symmetry in sound horses have not been studied. Our aim was to investigate the effects of HNPs and rider on thesymmetry in minimum height of the withers at the walk. Seven high-level dressage horses were studied with and without rider in six HNPs: HNP1, free position; HNP2, dressage competition position; HNP3,flexed poll position; HNP4, over-flexed position; HNP5, extended raised position; and HNP6, forward downward position. Kinematic and vertical ground reaction force data were recorded during 15 s trialson an instrumented treadmill. In mixed models, difference in the minimal height of the withers in earlyleft vs right forelimb stance was modelled as dependent variable. The more restricted HNP3 (T-values2.62 to 1.98, 118 DF,P¼0.001 to<0.05) and HNP5 (P¼0.002 to<0.05) were generally less symmetrical while unridden and more symmetrical while ridden, compared with the free (HNP1) or forward downward (HNP6) positions. Both with and without rider, when the withers dropped lower in earlystance of one forelimb, this was associated with shorter protraction at the start of stance in the ipsilateral hind limb, and shorter stance overlaps between this hind limb and the other limbs during diagonalsupport, 3-limb support with two forelimbs and one hind limb, and ipsilateral support. HNP effects on withers movement asymmetry differed between unridden and ridden conditions. The considerablevariation between horses stresses the need for trainers to use individualized training programs to address horse asymmetry.
Authors/Creators: | Egenvall, Agneta and Byström, Anna and Roepstorff, Lars and Rhodin, Marie and Weishaupt, Michael A. and van Weeren, Rene and Clayton, Hilary M. | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Title: | Withers vertical movement asymmetry in dressage horses walking in different head -neck positions with and without riders | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||||
Volume: | 36 | ||||||
Page range: | 72-83 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 12 | ||||||
Publisher: | Elsevier | ||||||
ISSN: | 1558-7878 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 403 Veterinary Science > Medical Bioscience | ||||||
Keywords: | Head and neck position, Horse, Dressage, Withers, Vertical asymmetry, Walk | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-106828 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-106828 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
| ||||||
ID Code: | 17307 | ||||||
Faculty: | VH - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science | ||||||
Department: | (VH) > Dept. of Clinical Sciences (VH) > Dept. of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 20 Aug 2020 08:51 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 15 Jan 2021 19:20 |
Repository Staff Only: item control page